Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The technology people appear to be happy to move around in a cocoon with no knowledge of anything that is outside their bubble. Perhaps they think that they are the only thing that matters so nothing else matters except for what is immediately around them and within their use? It just seems to me like an odd way to live life.
Actually, I am a "technology person", a former programmer analyst/project leader and I nevertheless prefer a good, current map to navigation systems I have seen in many vehicles.
If you are in a town or city, you look for clues such as street signs, bridges, etc to figure out where you are, IF you get lost in the first place.
Using any map or device doesn't stop someone from getting lost. It is only a tool.
If YOU rely on an electronic device to "tell" you where you are, that's your choice. Some of us like to use other methods, and they still work just fine. You can argue till you are blue in the face, but they do. Maybe not for YOU, but for other people. We don't all have such lowexpectations of ourselves.
You can choose to do whatever you want but you can't argue a fine tool is better than another when it's clearly not
Some people here think people that use GPS are brain dead and totally dependent on it. I'm sure people that use the sun or the stars to navigate would say the same thing about paper map users.
AAA always wants to see my membership card, so I suspect that maps are for members only.
Maps allow you to see the bigger picture instead of following a very narrow path without any awareness of what else might be in the area. There are almost always multiple roads to get you where you want to go and a map will let you see those.
GPS shows a very small area and my experience with GPS is that it often does not send you on the best route. It will occasionally send people into areas that are dangerous and people have even died by blindly following their GPS.
GPS is also worthless if you haven't decided where you want to go. You can look at a map and see that if you follow that road there is a lake up there. Can you ask your GPS to find you a nice lake for a picnic?
Good post - I am rethinking the whole "who needs a paper map" thing.
I haven't seen a basic Rand McNally atlas in Walmart in years. I get mine from Amazon these days.
A few weeks ago, I looked at a new Rand McNally Road Atlas in our local Walmart. I was thinking about replacing my 2004 edition.
Maybe this summer I will get a new one. Hopefully they still make the spiral bound ones. They will lay flat without being weighted down. That is very convenient!
I get Montana maps from the local Visitor's Center. Free, of course.
Come to think of it, I need to check the motorhome and see what atlases I have in there. They may need updated.
Both of my Garmins need updated, too. One has free updates for life, the other I have to pay for. I can buy quite a few atlases for what it costs to update that magic gadget! For that matter, if I catch the right sale, I can buy a new one with lifetime updates for just a little more money!
Most truck stops have a special "Trucker's Edition" atlas that has information about low clearances and bridge weight limits. That is a good book for RVers.
The trucker's atlas that I looked at also listed shower facilities, which can be useful for other travelers when they are camping and would like to buy a shower.
Too funny with these comments. I once started a thread on my dissatisfaction with a GPS. I mentioned how it sent me into a 5-mile construction zone with a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam, how it told me to make three turns when one turn would do, how it told me to get off an expressway and get back on at the same street, and how it sent me many miles out of my way. I got ripped to shreds in that thread, for being a luddite . Good to know there are other people who think GPS's are usually a bad idea.
I was planning a trip a few years ago, from CT to the eastern shore of northern VA. I wanted to avoid driving near NYC and going over the GW or TPZ bridges and was willing to take the extra time to go around. I did however want to load a pre-arranged route into my phone so it could talk to me instead of using my old sticky note system.
So I went onto a tech forum for my phone because the members are incredibly geeky and smart. Surely this has been done before. And I can do it with bike and running routes so it was a no-brainer to think I can do it for a car route.
I can't tell you how many comments I got of "WHY would you do THAT?!" "The GPS knows the best route". And was told by a company that it was a liability issue for them to allow users to tweak the mapped route like you can do in google. Wait - so it's ok for your route to send me into a sketchy area, but it's not ok for me to map myself out of it?? I can only imagine the people shocked at what I wanted to do were aged 17, surely not more than 20. And had probably never driven out of their city.
I ended with with an AAA Triptik, paper maps, my sticky notes on the dash and then I programmed key points into the phone, but I had to do them one at a time else it kept trying to lure me back to I95.
I do like the GPS but like MU above, I've been sent into construction zones and personally I have a bad habit of not scanning my route in advance and have ended up in the wrong town at times. My fault. But I've never done that with a paper map. I have maps for all surrounding states in my glovebox and anytime I go further I make sure I have maps for everything between here and there. My phone is convenient because it's right there, but the map gives me a much bigger picture.
To bring this back to the thread, everything was free because I'm an AAA member. I think my branch sells maps though. And I'm sure the OP has their question answered by now.
<edit> Some of our local businesses have town maps because they are still sold with advertising. I bet you can contact state tourism departments and have state maps mailed to you if you're not in a rush for them.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
. Good to know there are other people who think GPS's are usually a bad idea.
