90s habit vs current trend

[Barman58]

I've been driving to places "for the first time" for many years and have found that, usually if not always, the place you you get lost is the last mile or so, where a wrong turn can take you away from your destination rather than towards it. The Sat Nav [I now use a bespoke Garmin Unit that links to my phone for traffic updates, Cameras, Weather Etc, but have found that google maps on my phone works just as well], will guide me around the local area that is not signposted to the actual address I need, Anyone should have enough of an idea of where they are going to get to the general area using Major roads, [so heading for somewhere in London and the Sat Nav taking you to a similar place name in Glasgow should not happen]. You do see the occasional cheapskate trucker stuck in a country lane because (s)he decided to use a cheaper Sat Nav designed for cars.

I recall many years ago travelling to a major chemical plant in the English countryside, I found the village it was located in using the major roads and signage, But the plant was not yet on a map as it was a new build and I spent an hour or so looking for the new access road [unsigned down a lane between two buildings that I had driven by on several occasions]. A few weeks ago I was asked at a gas station for directions to a property in a new part of the estate I live on, I did not have a clue, but my phone gave me [and the visitor], perfect directions to the address, which was in walking distance from my home

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've been driving to places "for the first time" for many years...

You would love driving in California. As if driving on the right side of the road didn't drive (pun intended) you nuts, the lousy signage would. Many of California's highways are city streets and often a minor road that turns on and off a main drag. Good luck finding the tiny signs that tell you where the darned road is.

The worst, however was when I was driving in downtown San Francisco twenty years ago. Thanks to the one way streets laid out by insane, drunken stoners while on a bender, I kept going off the Mapquest I had printed out ahead. I spent over an hour trying to go one lousy mile. There is NO WAY I'm EVER going back there again, even with a seeing eye dog, a trail guide, a book full of maps, a GPS, and an army of Boy Scouts!

 

[Barman58]

I remember one Sunday visit from newport to Gloucester to take a friend to collect a car. Gloucester has a similar one way system to downtown San Francisco, it would seem, because when I arrived in the city centre I decided I needed to fill up the car, urgently . Now as this was a sunday the number of open gas stations was reduced to a total of approximately One. Not a problem I could actually [expletives removed] see the station from where I was, slight problem, every time I got close to the place the one way system veered off in a different direction and I had to start again . I did eventually reach the gas station and fill up, passing several shut stations, and filled up and completed my journey

 

[RoWin7]

We have to decide if we're better off with or without electronic maps. I don't travel enough to do a controlled experiment, but two do.

Stupid truck drivers in this area sometimes use the narrow scenic parkways where they're forbidden, then get stuck under the overpasses. Are there separate GPS's for trucks that would tell them those things?