I have whined
in the past about things that have gone that won’t be coming back. But on the radio this morning, I heard that they are barely making any more road maps.
I love road maps, I love to spread them out on a table and look for twisty roads in hilly regions, find singletrack and greenlanes, and I am one of the people who instinctively knows how to fold and unfold one, and can do so with one hand, while driving. I’mna miss those fuckers.
next up: gas stations give away cheap disposable GPS devices which give you advertisements for local businesses between directions
11 comments Og | Uncategorized
When I first started spending “quality” time in DC 18 years ago, I noted that nearly everyone had a book of maps in the back seat of their car. In a region where the only “grid” of streets is the one that L’Enfant laid out, nobody seemed to be able to carry a map in their head. I had one of those books, too.
But now everybody out there (well, everybody who counts, I guess) has GPS, and you rarely if ever see the big books of maps in people’s cars.
It’s a different age.
I still have the big book of maps. I don’t refer to it much anymore unless I get off the beaten path. Normally, I’ll print off a google map before a trip or to find someplace that I haven’t been to before.
My dad always had a Rand-McNalley road map in his truck. I keep one myself, just in case.
Remember when they used to have the old series of advertising signs? The Burma Shave ones I remember quite well.
Loved the Burma Shave signs. Rand mcnally was in Hammond, once upona. How Sally Rand got her name.
I like me some maps too, but, I love my GPS. I like to drive around all over the countryside sight-seeing down roads I’ve never been on until I get totally lost. Then I fire up the GPS and press “Home” or “Hotel” or “Name of a major city”.
That’s way cool.
Wal-Mart’s annual $4.99 atlas is still the greatest set of road maps ever. Under construction stretches are highlighted, state parks are shown, and the detail is fairly robust. Map-reading certainly isn’t rocket science, but it takes a bit of cognition to determine a best route. GPS won’t tell you hey, Route A is 11 miles shorter, but Route B will take you through Waycross, and there’s a dog petrified in amber in a tree there you need to see. Of course, the atlas won’t tell you that either. Some things a person has just gotta KNOW.
As a geographer by education, a cartographer by training and necessity, I both love modern GIS and really, really, really, lament the passing of paper maps.
Ah, the presumption of permanence of digital media. 1000 years from now, they’ll have zero frickin’ idea about how things were laid out. Just a shiny disk they can’t read because they’ve advanced/fallen so far… fooey. I know how to fold 1000 square klicks worth of 1:50K maps so that you can maintain a continuous track, just a flip at a time, in any direction, and still keep your hand on the stick.
Indeed, John! The Accordion folded map (Or, for your benefit, Chart) is a glory to behold, and a marvel of technology.
We had a map store in our city once upona. That establsmnt had every kind of map including some county maps published by an outfit in Oakland that showed, in addition to highways and byways, section lines, streams, trails, and odd features such as waterfalls. Loved those maps.
You can still get the county/township maps out here in the hinterlands…and last time I checked they were still free. Gives all the roads, even the ones only blessed with a bit of flattened grass, gravel, and attitude. Last one I looked at also had a bit of topographical info as well.
GPS (and Google Earth/Maps) are a hoot. Fun to see yourself moving down the road. But will they ever get moms street addy on the correct side of the street? (Lives on the north side of the road, not the south side.) Have seen that done to more than one business as well.
As an aside, remember when you could go to any of the service stations, and get local as well as “nation-wide” maps? Now you are lucky to have some one behind the counter who is able to direct you in any given 2 block radius from said gas station.
Good thing the nautical charts are still………
……..oh wait……damn.
nevermind
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX