Stephan Pastis' cartoon last Sunday made me smile, but also wince a little. Click the image to be taken to a larger view at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.
When I first came to this country, back in 1996, that's exactly how I found my way around. I rented a car, bought a big fat Rand McNally road atlas for the whole nation and a few Thomas Guides for big cities, stopped at welcome posts as I crossed state lines to pick up more free maps there, and navigated my way around by keeping the current map open on the passenger seat as I drove. If things got complicated, I sometimes folded the map small and held it on the car's steering wheel as I drove. (A couple of times, cops stopped me because they said that was careless and negligent, but each time my foreign accent persuaded them to give me a break.)
Things have certainly changed. Between in-car navigation systems and GPS and map systems on our cellphones, it's almost impossible not to find the place you're looking for. Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder what would happen on our roads if a major power failure took out all the cellphone towers and other infrastructure on which our vehicle navigation depends. Within a split-second we'd be cut off from all our modern aids, and having to navigate as we did in the 1990's - but few of us still carry road atlases or Thomas Guides in our cars. (I still carry a Rand McNally atlas, but that's because I had to navigate all over the world - not just in America - using maps and a compass, and I've never lost the fear that I may need to do so again. I dislike total dependence on any particular technology.)
How many of you, dear readers, learned to drive using a stick shift, and found your way around using paper maps? How many of your children can say the same?
Peter
41 comments:
I got a big old Rand Mcnally for the whole nation behind my seat in my truck. And when I'm on my Harley, nothing but finding my way like I learned to 40+ years ago, no GPS, nothing
Lalo
Son wanted to learn stick shift driving because he wanted to get a new(at the time) 1999 Ford Mustang. He sold it when he got married. As for maps - I just ordered a AAA Triptik for a trip I'm going on in the next month or so.
Where I grew up, if you got your license on a stick shift, you could drive anything, but if you got it on a “automatic” you could drive only automatics. A good auto theft deterrent today is a stick shift vehicle.
Never learned to drive a stick but still keep actual city and state maps in the door map pocket especially when on vacation. I too don't trust technology to always be there.
"How many of you, dear readers, learned to drive using a stick shift, and found your way around using paper maps?" Me.
Also, sometimes, by recognising individual damage to the sheep fences at the roadside.
My first use of GPS was after I'd retired from the Navy. I was working for a company installing and maintaining the border security cameras for the Border Patrol in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
We'd have longitude and latitude and used GPS to find it while driving a rented 4WD SUV around in the desert.
Of course we only had to find the general area...once they came into view it's pretty hard to miss a 100 foot aluminum pole with cameras at the top sticking up in the middle of nowhere in the desert.
I still have road atlases and maps of the areas I travel regularly. I have a Garmin and mounts both in my truck and on the handlebar of my motorcycle, but if it quits, I always have paper maps as a backup.
I probably should get new ones...mine are pretty old and may be out of date. Good reminder.
Yes...I learned to drive in a "three on the tree" farm truck. I started driving on the farm and in the fields as soon as I was big enough to reach the pedals. I remember in the early days having to physically lift my butt off the seat to get enough weight on the clutch pedal to push it down.
I bought my kids first cars for them when they turned 16. Nothing extravagant...inexpensive used cars that they could get around in (and learn the joys of repairing). I insisted that both of them were stick shift cars so they'd learn how to drive them. Daughter's was a fox body Mustang (I cringe a little when I think they shamed the Mustang name by calling those things that), and Son's was a Series 3 RX-7. Cool little car that was fun to drive but so underpowered with that little rotary engine it couldn't get out of its own way.
But I digress.
Now days you just about have to special order a manual transmission. Ford hasn't made a pickup with a manual transmission in decades. It's a shame really.
The family cars I learned on were both stick shifts, and we still had them ~4 years later when my sister learned to drive. She claims she was more than a bit confused when she took her driving test in an automatic.. Where's the clutch pedal, where's the shift, and what's this thing on the steering column???? We still have a stick-shift car in my family.
Thomas Guides were Da Bomb in Lost Angles before GPS was available, enough so that people would describe their location by TG edition, page and grid number! We would tell the pizza delivery "OC, pg/grid 484, G2" because TG had a consistent grid for all of California established.
Fun Fact: Every page of a Thomas Guide had an error they inserted, so if another company simply copied the map Thomas Bros could identify which exact map (county and year at least) was stolen.
For a SHTF scenario I imagine phone-based navigation would be useless out of your local area but vehicle or dedicated device navigation would still be OK.
I still have a Rand McNally road atlas in the three of my vehicles I use for cross-country travel. Invaluable! I grew up using map and compass (orienteering plus military service prior to GPS). GPS has its uses yet I prefer the old-fashioned method.
Meh.
I make a point to have offline-capable maps on any electronic navigation devices. And preferably enough of a battery that they can be used for a while without being tethered to a running car.
And *also* carrying paper maps - doing the layout and printing them myself if I can't buy the kind I'd like.
Oh and stick shift is the normal thing around here. Meh, at least I'll drive an automatic if necessary but the wife *really* doesn't like them... then again she also doesn't believe in thermostats... wants to be /in control/.
Our oldest son... well, the other time he complained about no one else in his group of friends knowing how to double-clutch an unsynchronized stick shift... well, that particular car is older than my parents...
I live in Arkansas now but, for 20 years prior, I lived in Florida. I drive back that way twice a year. I have the route memorized, barring something truly apocalyptic around Atlanta. Still, I have maps of every state from where I start to where I end up. I figure they could come in handy if 1) my cellphone battery dies midway (which happened last March), 2) weather, traffic or civil disturbances require a significant detour or, God forbid, 3) I am stranded by an EMP and have to find my way home of foot.
The other extreme is what we found when we moved to Concord MA in ~1970. AAA maps didn't have much town detail so we bought a Gazetteer of Eastern Massachusetts (or some name like that). It was a folio-sized book of town maps.
- In Alphabetical Order
- Each town map oriented to fit, so no consistent North
- Using that town's map format and legend
- Only showing the name of the next town on that border with no road info.
The cherry on top is roads are named for where they are going in that town and change names at a border. Bedford Road in Concord becomes Concord Road in Bedford. Are you confused yet?
We finally got fed up and bought a set of USGS topo maps at the highest resolution available and used them as wallpaper in the breakfast room. With a long handset cord on the phone we could walk over and trace out a route as it was being described over the phone. More than once we'd get to some complex corner and ask the person "Which way do we go on the 5-way corner now????" with the inevitable "How do you know there is a 5 way there??"
Until I left home for the big city after high school, I had never driven any vehicle with an automatic transmission.
Currently in the passenger seat rear pocket is a legal sized envelope with probably 20 paper maps and a compass.
Cross country travel i keep a truck stop directory book, especially when the kids were small. Even driving a car sometimes it is a blessing to know how far ahead a reasonably clean bathroom is. With it designed for trucks it was usually very easy to find and get back on the highway as well.
As said above, I learned three on the tree while working a summer job as a farm laborer.
By the end of summer I could reverse pretty much any tractor driven accessory, but that skill went away a very long time ago.
I like GPS but from time to time it strikes me how dependent we are on something that can very easily go away.
Yup, learned on a stick shift back in the 1970’s. Failed my first driver’s test, because the test car was an automatic, and I hadn’t driven one in several months.
Always had paper maps, and an atlas. For motorcycle trips I would photocopy a map, and use a highlighter to mark my route.
I seldom use GPS now, unless I happen to be in new territory, and haven’t looked up the travel route first.
Southern NH
Both my daughters and they still have/use real paper maps...
Learned to drive double-clutching in a worn out International with Three-on-the-Tree, quickly graduating to being able to handle a big truck's "rangemaster" dual-lever often with air-powered high-low knob on one shift lever.
Made our kids learn on manual transmissions, and let them loose in a manual diesel car that sounded like a delivery truck, so we knew what they were up to.
Better half runs a manual with the best of them, both in LHD and RHD cars.
Childhood motorcycles with both left-foot and some with right-foot shifters, and some time riding a relative's tank-shifter.
And maps! Lots of map books, and loose maps.
These days I still keep a state DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer for the areas of my regular travel with us.
E-navigation is pretty cool, but you can't write on the pages or put post-it notes for temporary things on your GPS Screen.
I have also seen GPS navigation be really off. If the database says that foot path is a navigable road it will try to take you down it.
Even the dynamically updating systems fall flat in severe weather, when roads may or may not be plowed or might have a foot of water on them.
Maps are good.
Skills are better!
My brother in law was murdered in Houston by two Detroit amish guys back in 1982. The cops caught them because they were trying to start his stick shift car when they arrived. You had to depress the clutch pedal to get his car started and the amish guys did not figure that out.
Learned land navigation (topo map & compass) in the boy scouts at the age of 13, so road maps were easy when I started driving on my own. For modern navigation I plan all travel routes with Garmin's Basecamp, then download them into my gps unit. However, when traveling I always have a U.S. atlas and individual paper maps for the states we're traveling. I'm the driver/navigator. If I'm out of commission, my wife is lost and has no interest in learning.
I learned to operate a manual transmission early in my driving ('69 Chevelle SS w/396), then later in life driving big commercial trucks.
I learned on a three on the tree that my brother had, and my first car was a four on the floor he bought and then tired of quickly. I took over payments. A 1972 Ford Pinto with the big engine. It would get rubber in all four gears - until I realized I had to buy tires and that was throwing money away.
I worked on GPS receivers in commercial aircraft receivers but can work from maps. Considering how many news reports we see about someone driving into a lake or something because "the GPS said to go here," they should probably offer insurance discounts if you can pass a basic test with maps.
Learned on a AC WD in a field. Pick your gear and go. Square cut gears with no synchros so no shifting on the go. And I have maps of any area I am in..never know when you have to do it with paper
We carry in our vehicles, and i highly recommend both a national atlas and Delorme state-specific atlas(es) for each vehicle. Central Texas based, we just have the texas one in each but have purchased others for trips/travel, and given a couple to family residing close to border areas...
Delorme shows all local roads, terrain, and parks. But are not updated yearly.
We also still have Garmin GPSes for each vehicle, instead of relying on phones, with those having lifetime maps and traffic updates.
While GPS have compass function, it's also good to have a compass in the glove box (especially for night orientation) and not just stashed in your go bag.
My last truck before the present one was a '72 Cheyenne, no power steering, three-on-the-tree. It was its own antitheft device.
I still carry DeLorme state atlases for states I plan to visit.
--Tennessee Budd
In San Jose, one of the deliberate errors was showing an interchange where CA 87 and US 880 cross - due to the Guadalupe River and San Jose International Airport, there isn’t one and you need to navigate through town (and several traffic lights) to make the change.
A coworker had just moved into the area and was very, very bitter at how many times he’d looped up and down looking for that nonexistent interchange.
I still have several editions of the Thomas Guide for the area kicking around somewhere, but I was always a little nervous when I used them to navigate somewhere new.
I was recently told they don’t do Trip-tiks anymore… but that was in Canada …
You Bet Your Sweet Bippy!
We keep Delorme maps for Montana and Wyoming in both our cars, with details of all the back roads. It's mighty easy to get beyond any cell coverage, making electronic apps fairly useless. Just two weeks ago we were in the middle of South Pass, 50 miles of no cell coverage on roads unknown by Garmin. I figure it doesn't get interesting until we have to rely on paper.
Still have a collection of gas station maps - some pre-construction of some of the Interstates (early/mid 70s). Collect state maps at rest areas when available. Carry DeLorme atlases. Rarely use GPS; don't have satellite service so often not available in places I could actually use it
There is something thrilling about laying a large map flat on the table and planing a route and following it with your finger and then getting in the car and making a reality. There is also a joy in getting lost and then finding yourself on the map and figuring how to get back on trap. It isn't the same when you can go 'Siri, find me a route to xyz'.
Me, myself, personally achieved directional stability while driving via the IFR/VFR method of navigation; I Follow Roads & Visualy Follow Roads. Never failed to get me there and importantly so, back.
Back in the day I worked as a start-up engineer at a Nuclear Power plant. Among the transient population of engineers and construction workers, to "Drag-up' meant quitting and moving on to the next job. The road atlas was called the "Drag-up Book." It was essential for planning where to go next. P,S, My screen name may give you a hint to my dependance on a good "Drag-uo Book."
Learned on an automatic, but still have current paper maps in the car, and carry written instructions for "how to get there" in cities if going to a known landmark. Do not use the in-car GPS.
TXRed
YES - I worked with a guy that would leave his '65 pickup unlocked and the keys above the visor. It had a '3 on the tree' security system...
I grew up with the 4WD '72 Cheyenne Super. I once had the engine stall while driving it. How did you manage to steer that 5500lb monster with no power steering??? I'm impressed.
Paper maps also fail to warn of flooded roads or roads not yet plowed, by a much longer update interval than a GPS.
I use GPS on my motorcycle for my convenience, in heavy traffic that voice saying "turn left 100 feet" is preferable to trying to look down at a paper map folded under plastic on the top of a tank bag and trying to see a tiny street name, plus it's right in front of me on a color screen.
It also has about 22Gb of music stored on a micro SD card for those boring interstate stretches.
I use a Cardo helmet intercom, pipes directions, music or SWMBO's commentary into my helmet speakers.
Voice commands to skip a track, volume up /down, redial a number are the cat's meow for convenience.
Or use the touch screen (works with gloves on).
The Cardo was primarily so we could have a normal conversation while riding, no buttons to push, just talk like we were in a car.
I do still carry pages from the appropriate DeLorme Gazetteer in a gallon zip lock and have a Brunton compass, all in my back box ... just in case.
Also just in case, the Cardo is linked with my cell phone.
Imagine an accident where I am trapped under the bike, but I can instruct the phone to call 911 verbally.
Old guys think about such things, yes we do.
Have a Good Day!
"Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder what would happen on our roads if a major power failure took out all the cellphone towers and other infrastructure on which our vehicle navigation depends."
For that reason I carry a Rand McNally atlas in my car. We used to call them "comic books" on the CB! I buy a new atlas every couple of years. It's there if I need it...
I didn't learn to drive on a stick, but the military fixed that glitch a couple of years later. My '97 Jeep Wrangler sports a 5-speed. I prefer a stick to an automatic. YOU tell the CAR what to do! A manual transmission is only manual until you drive it a while. Then it becomes automatic! Two of my three sons can drive a stick. Reading maps? Maybe those same two... Maybe... The youngest one? (Insert shaking head here...)
Daughter learned stick with my car when she was tall enough to reach the pedals.
Multiple DeLorme gazeteers and other maps in the car. Diminishing eyesight is making the GPS thingy more useful; diminishing hearing is making it less useful. Really hoping self-driving cars (that can read a paper map) become a useful thing.
Cross country on two lane roads (no freeways) and eating at diners in little towns where you are the only strangers. Before Tetris there was 'Pack the Trunk!' Don't forget the compass on the dash.
I learned to drive on a stick. (Had to relearn it when I drove a semi truck for awhile.) Still got a couple atlases in my car, one a National Geographic, the other a trucker's atlas. I just got to liking those back in the day. Got a slew of paper maps still stuffed in the door pockets. Sigh. Never read em on the move, I'll pull over. Don't want some mechanical girly voice telling me where to go and how.
We resisted smartphones longer than most, and discovered from experience that without such instant current data access, paper maps are far superior to car GPS in situations such as:
• local emergencies (accidents, major fires) closing a major thru-road in a place where you don't have local knowledge.
• navigating an unfamiliar city when the railroad has decided to rebuild ALL the level crossings on a line at the same time.
• finding a route that bypasses all flooded roads when a freak storm drops an inch-of-rain per hour for half a day.
When we moved to our current locale, I spent an evening looking closely at USGS topo maps of the area to try to identify choke-points that would hamper travel between work & home, home & hospital., etc. and planning "fastest long-cuts" to avoid them. We've already made use of our planned and practiced detours because of a derailed train and for local flooding.
Then I encouraged the family to practice the bypass routes enough that they would memorized route. It's served us well in making a few unscheduled road closures stress-free.
Working in the movie business, I lost track of how many times some 19-year-old production office flunkie moron would try and tell me how to get to the location with carefully created maps based on their lifetime of non-experience with actually getting around SoCal.
After the 18th time some S-For-Brains Millenial moron tried to guide the entire production crew the wrong way down one-way streets in downtown Los Angeles (a concept earnest high school dropout whiz kids from Kansas couldn't wrap their ignorant heads around), I would tell them, "Look Soopergenius, just tell me what time to be there, and give me a Thomas Guide map page and grid reference, and I'll get there not only intact, but 20 minutes before you get there trying to follow your idiot-programmed GPS off a bridge or cliff, or up a road which doesn't exist."
Before they sold out to the idiots at Rand Mcnally, Thomas Guide was a SoCal creation, which no driver in Califrutopia failed to keep in the car, and which phenom eventually expanded nationwide, and their SoCal entire-wall-sized maps were a thing of beauty.
I still have an LA/OC Thomas Guide book sitting in the door pocket, and use it regularly, in preference to anything, including a Garmin tablet, because unlike Garmin's perpetually obsolete database, it's actually up-to-date.
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