Relative traveled by car cross country using only Satellite Navigation, no road atlas! (best, road trip)
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Would you try a cross country trip without a road map? My sister in law does not know how to read a map but uses only satellite navigation, with mixed results. The people at AAA tell me they talk to many people who don't own a road map or know how to use one. Can you relate?
Most people who have traveled any length of time for a living; truckers, sales people and others, get to where they rarely need maps until they get into their destination city or town. After five years of long haul trucking, I pretty much knew every interstate highway by heart. But I'm a lightweight compared to some of the folks that have been running up and down the roads for many years. I know truckers that can tell you about every back road and greasy spoon restaurant in America! I think those that have an interest in geography do well when it comes to navigating the interstates...
If I had a dollar for every car that passed my truck with a AAA Trip Tik on the lap of the passenger or on the seat, I'd be a rich man!
As for satellite navigation systems, I agree that they're handy. But I worry that it will take away our ability to use maps and the wealth of information that they impart about the whole state, region or country you are traveling through...sigh I love looking at maps! Best money I ever spent: the laminated, spiral-bound Rand McNally Trucker's Atlas. About $30 at truck stops. They're darn near bullet-proof and even come in a large-print edition!
For many long road trips that I have done every summer I had a map as a backup but my main navigation system was a map on my computer connected to a USB GPS reviver that points to my location on the map. I loved it!
There were only few times where I still had to get the map out.
It may sound like common sense, but there's road signs as well. They usually help. As long as you have a general understanding of where you're going and U.S. geography, just following road signs should get you to your end destination. Maps are always a good backup though. I mean, the fact that some people are willing to pay $300 for GPS but not spend $20 on a road atlas seems strange to me. It can't HURT to at least have a map in the car.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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People need to know how to read maps. That navigation thingy might break when you least expect it. It is always good to have a Plan B for everything. I fear people are getting way too dependent on "iffy" high tech. Same with cell phones. Used to be plan A was a landline or payphone and plan B was a cell phone. Then cell phones became plan A and landlines plan B. Now landlines are going away and we will have no plan B. And when disasters hit, we will suffer for that.
It may sound like common sense, but there's road signs as well. They usually help. As long as you have a general understanding of where you're going and U.S. geography, just following road signs should get you to your end destination. Maps are always a good backup though. I mean, the fact that some people are willing to pay $300 for GPS but not spend $20 on a road atlas seems strange to me. It can't HURT to at least have a map in the car.
I agree. I've been on a lot of road trips over the past few years and have become familiar with alot of the interstates in my area. I rely on the road signs to get me where I'm going, but I also have maps with me just in case.
As for satellite navigation systems, I agree that they're handy. But I worry that it will take away our ability to use maps and the wealth of information that they impart about the whole state, region or country you are traveling through...sigh I love looking at maps! Best money I ever spent: the laminated, spiral-bound Rand McNally Trucker's Atlas. About $30 at truck stops. They're darn near bullet-proof and even come in a large-print edition!
I love my large print road atlas, lots more details and easier to read than "tiny print" maps. I think that's why so many people have trouble with maps, they look at those regular sized ones with all the tiny printing crammed together. A good map and a compass are all I need to navigate my way anywhere on a road trip, along with paying attention to the road signs. However, as Crew Chief described in another thread awhile back, road sign logic and clarity is a mixed bag around our vast land. So I like the compass to have verification that I'm headed in the right direction. Satellite navigation has such a tiny area that it covers on the screen, you don't get the "big picture" of where you are going.
I'm traveling across country right now. I'm in Missouri tonight. My route is pretty straight forward. I'm taking I-70 East most of the way, but I check a road map every night. I can't imagine not having one.
Not being able to read a map is sad, lol. Some friends of ours complained recently that their GPS navigation system didn't have some of the roads in our area in their system. We live in a rural area, so that could explain it. The info that company had wasn't updated. Many rural roads are not on the printed road atlas either. I bought the latest Rand McNally Northern Calif road atlas. I looked up my town. It is missing most of my neighborhood, its a regular subdivision not spread out homes. On the map the street ends where my house is, which is funny. The homes just one block away are between 3-7 years old and those streets are not included. The map also had many streets in the wrong place. It listed the street where I used to live in the wrong spot. There were many other errors. I wonder how often that happens. I emailed the company about the errors and never heard back.
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