Road Map or Sat. Nav. - Which do you prefer?

[EssexExile]

I usually look up where I'm going beforehand on Google maps on the PC. As Thekilt above, I usually look at my destination on street view too. I use Google satnav while driving but always have a not-too-out-of-date real map with me just in case.

I like to have a paper OS map of the area when I'm on holiday, I look up where I'm walking on the paper one then use the OS app when actually out walking. But with the paper one in my pocket just in case.

When I was a kid Dad used to look up the route on the maps in a second hand AA members handbook then drive until his memory ran out. Then he'd look up a bit more and carry on. Mum just sat next to him admiring the view.

[minibull]

I remember back in the 60's my dad would send off to the AA for instructions to get to our holiday destination, you could find your way to anywhere in the country using 12 pubs as waypoints.

[andy_d]

used maps for years while driving all over the uk, mostly for picking the better exit from the motorway for that part of that town , the local AtoZ to find the exact place.

now its mostly memory and reading the road signs till i get to the town , then Listen to the sat nav voice guidance while Reading road signs/traffic to get to the exact place, its a Lot safer listening to "turn left in 500yards" than juggling an AtoZ. Usually the sat nav gets it correct, unless a new one way system has happened , or "no entry" signs popped up since the last map update, you Have to pay attention or your going to be a problem driver/clownshoes (hopefully stuck in a bus only road system with cameras to record your achievement/issue fines )

anyone who relies on just a sat nav, is going to end up being a problem driver sooner or later, as for those clownshoes who insist on sticking them to the windscreen and obscuring there vision of the road ahead ,, i WISH plod would issue the relevant fines + points, just like they used to when the map was unfolded and obscured the windscreen,

saw a Classic of that down in the Cotswolds a few years ago, bloke in a convertible jag xj pootling along ahead of me, i kept seeing him trying to look at his map. Nice straight bit of road , he Misses the Bend in the country road, finds out Jag 0 Dry stone wall 1 , waiting to see the savnav version of that

[DaveNP]

I don't have a satnav but I do occasionally use the one in the wife's car, but then I can't remember when I last opened a paper map either. Having been a truck driver for nearly 35 years I've traveled to a lot of places in the UK so tend to already know most of my way to wherever we're going, I supplement this with a good check on Googlemaps and Streetview before I go anywhere, I do have an ability to remember routes after only going there once and with Streetview I can do that on screen beforehand. It was a bit funny when my brother moved to Crewe a few years back as I had looked where his new house was and checked the route, the first time we went to visit I had no map and my wife wanted to know how I knew the way especially when I said 'It's just down here on the left after the newsagents'.

One of the problems with Satnav (in my eyes anyway) is that people follow them uncritically and have no idea where they are or where they are going, it is probably rare but there's plenty of stories of people doing things like London to Brighton via a ferry to France 'because the Satnav said so'. I did once do similar in the pre Satnav era, the job I had was delivering to local agents for a mail order company and there was an 'Idiots Guide' for every route, a file about 2 inches thick which told you every turn and traffic light and roundabout for the whole route including the colour of each agent's front door. I had followed one of these guides for a new route and done the final drop, I turned the last page expecting to find directions to get home but it just said 'You've finished, you can go home now', mild panic, I didn't even have a clue which town I was in! I had to drive down the road looking for road signs to work out where I was, turned out to be Kings Lynn, it had taken me about 6 hours to get there via all the stops on the way but it was just two hours to get home.

Paper maps do have a great quality for browsing which I like doing for areas where we might go on holiday, there's something about a big spread out map that gives a better sense of proportion than scrolling around on screen with predicted journey times, but then on screen I can flip between several different maps of the same area with each one giving me different information.
Just realised I sound a bit of a map nerd

[Wagon Sailor]

I love maps. I like the topographical info, the stuff that shows if you're about to go under or over a railway, the orientation of places in relation to each other.
Satnavs have their uses, too. For me, they're handy when close to the destination and for the eta.

So, it's satnav for basic directions and maps for (much richer) geography.

[RonFleet]

Originally Posted by Thekilt

I use the satnav while driving, but the night before i would have studied the route on google maps on the laptop. Have a look a tthe route it gives me, look at alternatives, study in detail where exactly i am going, looking at street view to get memorable areas when getting close to the desitnation etc. I tend to use waze, but the issue does come when there are traffic Jams and they "Re-route" you, and the route you woudl have taken and studied well soon becomes defunct and you havent fot a blind clue where you are. I onyl tend to follow the diversion if I have heard on the radio about bad traffic too. I dont "Rely" on it.

This is basically the approach I take. I like to have a mental image of the route before I set off, with waypoints memorised.

[Wagon Sailor]

Don't forget, though, that you're never lost, you're just finding new places.

[DaveNP]

Originally Posted by Wagon Sailor

Don't forget, though, that you're never lost, you're just finding new places.

That's only half in jest When I'm out in the car I sometimes deliberately take a road I haven't used before just to find out where it goes and how it links up with other roads I know. Some years ago I had a job delivering kitchen furniture around Birmingham, many of the drops were regulars but there were usually one or two new ones, as I found my way to and from the new ones with an AtoZ I'd realise 'this is the road that goes to Brown's' or 'Smith's is that way' and I'd just add to my mental map of Birmingham.

[pinballdave]

Originally Posted by DaveNP

When I'm out in the car I sometimes deliberately take a road I haven't used before just to find out where it goes and how it links up with other roads I know.

Me too. A while ago I had a daily commute from Brighton to Berkshire. I made a point of trying different routes, sometimes checking on the map before I left, sometimes just winging it and taking a turn off just to see where it goes. I can now find my way to most places south of the M4 between Southampton and Brighton without resorting to maps or sat-nav.

I also spent a few years after this driving a taxi to give me something to do between contracts. I had a sat-nav available but often went weeks without using it, and on trips 'out of my manor' I'd just ask the customer if it was OK to head to [insert pub/landmark here] and they can guide me in for the last few streets.

Now, when I'm going somewhere I'm not familiar with, it's the check google maps and a few waypoints in streetview routine, rather than rely on a sat-nav.

[Forg]

Originally Posted by Thekilt

I use the satnav while driving, but the night before i would have studied the route on google maps on the laptop.

I do the same. Modern SatNav systems are brilliant if you're somewhere you don't know; for example, the UK has a lot of multi-lane roundabouts that join multiple roads & if you don't know the intersection it's not always obvious which lane you should use to enter the roundabout & not be cutting across people to exit ... modern SatNav systems which tell you exactly which lane to be in are brilliant when coming across something like that!