Who can read maps?

[GuanoLad]

I am excellent at reading maps. Because I can't (don't) drive, I ride shotgun and am usually the navigator. If it's only my first try at a new map, it might confuse me, because of unfamiliarity of scale (or occasionally the lack of details, like 'one ways' and 'no exits').

I love it! I just sit and follow the map as we drive, just for the fun of it. I would love to be a navigator on an orienteering car rally or something. I think I'd be really good at it, and in any case totally enjoy it.

But I am aware that many people just can't seem to grasp mapreading at all. This makes no sense at all to me, it's the simplest idea there is - you know where you are, you know where you have to be, you just follow the little lines and go where they lead. Simple.

Are you one of those people who can't read maps? And is there any explanation why this could be so?

[Omnipresent]

I'm with you. I love map reading. I have a atlas in the bathroom that I just flip through whilst on the crapper.

[Johnny L.A.]

When I was flying regularly in fixed-wing aircraft I had a pair of VOR receivers. They were handy, but it was more fun using "pilotage" -- looking out the window and comparing what you see with the sectional chart. Helicopters are more of a handful (since they are inherently unstable) and they're too expensive to fly out of the area I know.

And of course, I carry a Thomas Guide (SoCal Dopers will know what I mean) in my car. It's indespensible in L.A.

Why can't some people read maps? I don't know. I've never met anyone who couldn't.

[Johnny L.A.]

Oh -- I have a map of Washington (state) in my office. I like looking at places I've been and places where I want to go. I also have a little globe, and a globe of the Moon. I like maps.

[AmericanMaid]

I love reading maps! If I'm early to pick up someone, I usually pull out my road atlas and read it like a book. I also have a stellar directional sense. Hedge mazes are tons of fun for me. I think this talent and map love is connected to having this play neighborhood mat for matchbox cars when I was little. Anyone else have this?

[Bruce_Daddy]

I also read atlases on the toilet. I drive my friends nuts when we go hiking because I pull the damn map out every 5 minutes.

Viva maps!

[Zeldar]

I'm a map collector! I must have hundreds of those free maps they used to have at filling stations. Now that you have to buy them, I mainly stick with the atlas type and the ones you can get at the state-run welcome stops.

I have several mapping software things and love playing with them. Finding out times and distances is a blast. I even retrace routes we've taken to see how closely our mileage was to the mapping program's.

The best maps I have found are those by-state topo maps that DeLorme puts out.

There are quite a few websites with historical maps and I even found one that's down-to-the-house level with aerial photos of that area to corroborate the graphic maps. Cool site! I'll look for the link.

[jjimm]

I'm exceptionally good at reading maps and at navigating. I used to be a van courier in England and got highly adept at predicting town traffic flows, one-way systems, and so on. Unfortunately, I'm one of the only people I know who can drive. This is frustrating, because my navigator is usually not up to my standards, and I yell at them, which I shouldn't do.

Is there any truth in the rumour that women are naturally not as good as guys at reading maps, due to different 2D/3D perception? I had this discussion with a female friend who was navigating. She told me she was just as good as any guy, but then I noticed that every time we turned a corner, she turned the map too. She said "that's the only way I can tell which way we're going". We got very lost.

[Zeldar]

Check out this site (http://mapping.usgs.gov/partners/viewonline.html) for some fun online mapping software.

[Fern Forest]

If I were an RPG with a map reading number it would be very high. I navigated the family through London, up to Cosgrove, west to Bath, down to Brighton back to London as well as a big circle around Ireland and only got us lost once in Bath. I blame Bath.

I even got the merit badge for it. Well I earned it but I never picked it up. I was a pretty lazy boy scout. Hmm I can't find it in the list of merit badges (http://www.usscouts.org/usscouts/mb/filenames.html) but I remember doing something in scouts about learning how to read maps. Too bad too, now that I look at them they all sound like so much fun to get. Live and learn.

[Johnny L.A.]

Is there any truth in the rumour that women are naturally not as good as guys at reading maps, due to different 2D/3D perception?
I don't know about that, but I did hear that women and men prefer different types of directions. For example, a man might expect "Take Main Street north one mile to Offshoot Road. Turn left (west). Drive 3.2 miles to Overland Avenue." A woman might want something like "Take Main Street until you get to the Chevron station on the corner. Turn left and drive until you see the house with the block wall in front of it." From what I've heard, men prefer to have direction and distance while women prefer to have landmarks.

Personally I prefer to have a combination. "Go north on Main one mile to Offshoot. There's a Chevron station on the corner. Turn west and go 3.2 miles to Overland. There is a house with a block wall there." I use my odometer whenever someone gives me a distance.

If I have a map, I'll look at the route and see what streets come up before my turn so that I can be ready.

[Phlosphr]

Spatial cognition is the answer to the OP. cite (http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/~krafft/papers/2001/wayfinding/html/node33.html) .
That Cite is a more academic one.
Plus how many of you posters who like reading maps and find it easy are Men?

Wanting to stick as close to the OP as possible, there have been many studies on the gender differences in spatial cognition. Men tend to show much more aptitude for map reading and finding their way spatially, rather than verbally or intellectually. i.e. the whole stopping at a gas station for directions...

cite (http://course.wilkes.edu/psy331/stories/storyReader$32) .

I love maps... I just finished a very good book about a group of old maps of the world that were stolen....

[FairyChatMom]

I've always loved maps! When I was still an active pilot, I think I liked poring over the charts and planning trips more than actually taking the trips. When we go out on the boat, even when we used our navigation software, I refer to the paper charts and track landmarks and channel markers. When I'm driving, I have a mental map running all the time. Even if I don't know exactly how to get from point A to point B, I can "see" my mental map and figure out my route.

My husband navigates by landmarks. The concepts of "north" or "east" or how roads are arranged seem to elude him. So we make a good team. He likes to drive, and I like to tell him where to go! :D

When we visit maritime museums and such, I love poring over the old maps and charts. Our office at home has map wallpaper. I have a ball with Mapquest.

Yeah, I love maps.

[RickJay]

I was always good at reading maps... a very helpful skill indeed when I joined the Army. You would be shocked to discover how many soldiers suck at reading maps.

On one memorable occasion on my first radio op course our detachment was rolling along a road in Petawawa when we spotted a fellow detachment along the side of the road. The det leader, who I will call Peterson, told us he was lost. He expressed frustration that he could find the road he was on, but he couldn't locate any of the roads on his map that were indicated by the little brown lines.

The "little brown lines" he was looking at were CONTOUR LINES!

I like maps. I find them aesthetically pleasing. I draw maps freehand just for fun; if I'm in a boring meeting I'll doodle a map of the world, complete with all the major islands, and it's pretty accurate for a hand-drawn map done from memory.

[Dinsdale]

Add me to the map-o-philes. My dad worked for Rand McNally for over 20 years. Each year their x-mas cards were oversized repros of antigue maps. A neat collection. And we have any number of globes, atlases, etc.

I recently discovered an incredibly frustrating blindspot in my navigating skills. I was born and raised on the N side of Chicago where there are a couple of hard and fast rules. With only a couple of exceptions, the streets run N/S, E/W, rather than on angles. The other constant is that Lake Michigan is always to the east.

We have a family place in Michigan, near Muskegon. The problem is, Michigan is on the other side of Lake Michigan, so the Lake is in the wronng place! Not only is it to the West, but it is to the left on maps. I can look at a local map of Michigan, see that something is to my left, but because it is closer to Lake Michigan, I have the hardest time keeping myself from saying it is to the East.

Further complicating things is that the lake on our property runs on an angle, from SE to NW.

For some reason or another, these 2 factors throroughly goof me up, and create a constant source of amusement for my family. "Hey dad, what direction are we heading NOW? (Snicker.)"

[mipiace]

I am excellent at reading maps and have taught my kids to read them as well. My ex-husband however had no frickin' sense of direction and no spatial vision. Had to buy him a GPS because he got lost EVERYWHERE He went. some people just don'thave that inner sense that tells them if they just took a left then on the way back they should take a right, or that if they turn right they MUST be going east. They just don't "get" it. I tried to explain it but the only way I could ever get him anywhere with any accuracy was by using markers. "Turn right by the big church..etc" otherwise he would totally screw it up. I don't know why some people can't do it but I made sure my kids understood from a young age it was really a handicap for him.

[Phlosphr]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Geocaching. Anyone up for a hunt in New England this autumn?


I was introduced to this by a doper and my wife and I are hooked. We've only been 3 or 4 times this summer though. And one of those was in Sedona, AZ.

hint: there's a pic of me and my wife on cathedral rock...

[Zeldar]

I was surprised to learn -- somewhere along the way -- that while North is at the top of modern maps it used to be that East was at the top. Thus the term "orienting" the map, or getting "oriented."

Do any of you hate the term "orientated" as much as I do?

[AmericanMaid]

Woohoo more female map lovers! I'm no more the lone female oddity. My brother, father, and I all have excellent directional sense and love maps. My mom can get lost in a parking lot. During my high school and college years I tried to get lost driving on purpose. But I could never get lost enough, I always found my way home. I did find some really neat places though. If I visit a place once, I can always find it. Decades can go by but I'll always find it.
So those studies that claim women have a poor directional sense don't apply to me. Maybe I have a super developed parietal lobe. Or maybe, like my mother suggests, my Indian blood gives me excellent tracking skills.
FairyChatMom I do that exact same thing. It's like I can see a birds eye view of wherever I am.

[Phlosphr]

So those studies that claim women have a poor directional sense don't apply to me.

And I think if the study were up to date and cross cultural samples were included, I think the trend would show woman as being more spatially orientated.

[Scarlett67]

Female map lover here. Will read them for fun, am always the navigator, etc. I do not turn the map with each turn, that's just silly. But the females on my mother's side of the family are terrible map readers.

I also prefer to have a combination of concrete directions (street names, mileage, etc.) and landmarks for confirmation, and I'm told I give very good directions because that is the kind I give. But I CANNOT stand it when people give vague, confusing, out-of-order directions. Just give me the address and a map and I'll find it.

I do understand that some people have poor spatial skills (interpreting right-left turns, visualizing a route, etc.), and that hinders them in map reading -- so now I can at least try to have patience with them. But I have a hard time imagining that mental state.

[JohnGalt]

If you like reading maps, give the sport "Orienteering" a try. It's a world-wide sport, combining map reading and hiking (and just a bit light compass reading). That's probably the merit badge that Fern Forest earned. In the US, look at www.us.orienteering.org for info on meets scheduled near you (in Minnesota for example, look at www.mnoc.org). Try it, you'll be hooked!

[Einmon]

I'd like to think I am pretty good at map-reading. Unfortunately, I must be pretty good at driving, because I usually have to act as the driver for my map-readingly challenged friends.

One of them will never admit she sucks at map-reading, she'll claim: "The building/street/whatever wasn't ON the map." That was pretty annoying when we were lost in Toledo and she couldn't find the castle on the map (it was huge and marked with #1, too, when I checked, but I'm sure it wasn't there before).

On the other hand, I suck at directions. North, South, East, West - I am not a compass. I need landmarks - please tell me to turn "left at the huge McDonalds" and not "turn West after 3.5 km". But since I know it's like that I'll make sure that people give me appropriate directions so I don't get lost.

[emmaliminal]

I've had cause to think about this a lot over the years. My mom is a born mapreader. I've always had trouble. I've also always had problems telling left from right.

When I was a kid, I learned to write backwards with my left hand, in emulation of my extremely cool teenaged neighbor, who did it in emulation of Leonardo daVinci. I can still do that, though since I haven't practiced much since then, my left-hand backwards handwriting looks like a 12-year-old's. I don't know if this was easy for me because I'm naturally ambidextrous or because I trained myself.

My undergrad degree is in acting and theater, and I had to take stage combat and dance classes to get my degree. I discovered that I really relate to the world differently than most folks seem to. "Left" and "right", for me, it turns out, are not something I ever attached to my own body, but rather to my environment. Therefore, whenever I change my relationship to the environment, I need to re-establish leftness and rightness before I can follow directions again. So in dance class, introducing a turn to a combination of steps totally fucked me up, because I didn't have time to do that re-establishment.

If dance combinations were to be typically described in terms of points on the compass, I would have had a chance at being a decent dancer, 'cause those don't change. Yay for north south east and west!

In stage combat class, I learned broadsword "left-handed" because I managed to hurt my right wrist just before we started the broadsword unit. My fightmaster was amazed to find out that I did just as well as a left-handed broadsword fighter as I had as a right-handed rapier-and-dagger fighter -- he was sure I'd be hopelessly confused, but since I'd never believed in the difference between my left and my right anyway, it didn't make any difference to me. It was the only bonus associated with my corporeal dyslexia.

And then there's the problems with "stage left and stage right" versus "house left and house right"... and then you get directors or fellow actors who confuse those things... and I had a problem.

I mostly solved my problem by having a little tiny L tatttooed onto the thumb-edge of my left wrist and an R on my right. (And yes, smartass, I made sure I got the correct letter on the correct wrist. And no, smartass #2, I do not have any other body parts labelled. Sheesh. Somebody always asks, don't they?) To this day, I gotta look at those labels to give people directions, but hey, they're always there, so I'm OK.

When I was out of college, I had occasion to create a map for the area around a job I had. It showed all the businesses, other buildings, and related features. (I created it in MS Word using its drawing features, but that's another saga entirely.) It took me a few weeks to finish, and in the process, I learned that when I navigate, it's kind of like a narrative. In this narrative, there are "turn events", but I visualize the narrative like a movie screen: the screen stays in front of me. So landmarks work better than spatial instructions because they are easier to visualize in this way. Does that make sense? It's hard to describe.

In talking with my husband about this, I realized that he navagates in an entirely different way -- he "feels" the change in direction kind of like I "feel" gravity showing me upness and downness. So in a way, he's using the sense of touch to help navigate, while I'm using the sense of sight exclusively.

How do you all mentally represent navigation?

[tomndebb]

I mostly solved my problem by having a little tiny L tatttooed onto the thumb-edge of my left wrist and an R on my right. Should have saved yourself the cost of the tatoo--hold your hands up, palms away from you and extend your thumbs toward each other: your Left hand makes an L.
If I visit a place once, I can always find it. Decades can go by but I'll always find it.With new construction and such, I can't always guarantee the same thing, but on our trip to Seattle, last summer, I drove to several campgrounds and other locations without using the map, even though I had only been to them once before in my life, when I made a similar trip in 1981.

Our office at home has map wallpaper. I do not have a room large enough to do it, but a friend cut away the borders from all the USGS topographical maps of our county and the east end of the next county (she lives on the western border of ours) and papered a wall with them.

I own a few hundred road and national maps along with at least 16 world atlases (either current or historical). I was the navigator on family trips beginning when I was 10 and I still prefer to do my own navigating when I drive. (Once I've gone over the route a couple times, I can follow it even without the map, and use the maps only for time/distance estimates once we're moving.)

Deb had to teach herself to read maps--and did a great job--when she had an earlier job as a visiting nurse. She recently returned to that field, but vastly prefers to get directions from Mapquest.com rather than looking at the map. (We've been in this house for seventeen years, with the sun rising in the front each morning and setting in the back each evening, and she still has to ask which "way" north, south, east, or west are in relation to the house if the subject comes up.)

[amarinth]

Female (who has always done great on the spatial relationship tests, btw)
Love maps. I like looking at them and planning out on them, etc.

If I have one (an accurate one) I'm fine - and won't get lost (or won't get lost due to the map) So long as everything is right where the map says it is.

My problem is inaccurate/out of date maps. Or no map, but instructions like "North," "East," "West," and "South" proceeded or followed by some distance. That means nothing to me. A representative scale down on paper - great! But I have no innate sense of direction, so maps are a wonderful substitute.

[jjimm]

One theory I've got is that, when they are turning, some people think "left, right, up, and down", and some people think "clockwise, anticlockwise". A prime example of this is the old computer game Micro Machines - the cars are seen from above, and move around a "map" which always remains in the same orientation. The joystick only functions exactly as left-right when the cars are moving up the screen. The moment they turn, the joystick is only moving the car right and left relative to itself - in other words clockwise or anticlockwise. I've noticed that some people just cannot play this game. They steer fine until the car makes its first turn, and then they lose it. I have also noticed a male/female divide with this game, but then us geeky guys might just be more used to playing video games.

[dwc1970]

I thought I was the only "map geek". Good to know I'm not alone. When I was a kid I drew a map of a fictitious state, complete with cities, highways (intertstates with exit markers, national and state routes, route numbers), national forests, rivers, lakes, landmarks, counties, everything. I must have spent close to two years on it. In the 9th grade we studied Idaho history. At the beginning of the year we were given the semester final exam to see how much we already knew (we weren't graded on this, of course). I scored the highest and got all the answers right on the map portion of the test because I had studied the map of Idaho so much.

I like going to Mapquest and looking up various cities just to see what the street names and the street layouts are like and then compare them to what it's like around here.

[emmaliminal]

Originally posted by tomndebb
Should have saved yourself the cost of the tatoo--hold your hands up, palms away from you and extend your thumbs toward each other: your Left hand makes an L. Yeah, this is the third most frequent comment I get (after "Are you SURE they got the letters on the right hands?" and "So what ELSE do you have labelled, eh?"

It doesn't work because the right-handed, backwards L looks just as L-like to me, especially if I'm in a hurry or already confused. I should never have learned to write backwards with my left hand.

I also tried wearing rings on one hand and even painting the two sets of fingernails different colors and cutting them to different lengths. But it was still taking me too long to convert the information. ("OK now, are my rings on the right hand or the left one? Damn, there goes my cue!")

[NurseCarmen]

I'm glad you like them. I used to be a cartographer. Dullest. Job. Ever. But I did get to travel to such exotic locals as Iowa City, Iowa; Bismark, North Dakota; Rapid City, South Dakota; and Mankato, Minnesota.

That was nearly twenty years ago, and I still can go to those towns and know where everything is.

Due to that experience not only am I am an exceptional map reader, and I can amaze my wife with my inate abilty to find liquor stores/hardware stores/or grocery stores in any strange town I come across. They all tend to be in the same types of neighborhoods, and that can be easy to hunt for if you know what to look for. I once was unable to find a liquor store in Moose Lake Minnesota, other than a bar that sold high priced off sale. My wife's image of my abilities was shattered.

[SanibelMan]

I am a definite map and road geek. I flip through my atlas all the time and doodle entire cities, with highways, roads and intersections. Interestingly, while my mother cannot read maps well, she loves nautical charts and can understand them instantly. Go figure.

[SlowMindThinking]

Originally posted by mipiace
I am excellent at reading maps and have taught my kids to read them as well. My ex-husband however had no frickin' sense of direction and no spatial vision. Had to buy him a GPS because he got lost EVERYWHERE He went. some people just don'thave that inner sense that tells them if they just took a left then on the way back they should take a right, or that if they turn right they MUST be going east. They just don't "get" it. I tried to explain it but the only way I could ever get him anywhere with any accuracy was by using markers. "Turn right by the big church..etc" otherwise he would totally screw it up. I don't know why some people can't do it but I made sure my kids understood from a young age it was really a handicap for him.

My wife and your ex must be twins. :rolleyes: She "gets" the fact that she has to undo all her turns, but has to think very hard about it. Me, I just turn, because I "feel" the direction in the sense that emilyforce mentioned.

mipiace, didn't you also reply in that thread about women with strong libidos and men without? Hmmm, maybe we should meet... :p (Gee, a situation in which the winking guy has the wrong connotation.)

[SlowMindThinking]

Oops, I meant to actually answer the op! I love maps. My wife likes them, but struggles to use them. Like some others here, my sister studies them for fun.

And mipiace, perhaps one reason your ex is your ex is the attitude: "I made sure my kids understood from a young age it was really a handicap for him. "? Or, no drive, no spatial perception, maybe he's gay?

[rjung]

Is it impolite to say I don't understand how someone could not read a map? :confused: To me it's like saying you don't know how to move your legs and walk...

(I'm great with maps, but my brother's lousy with 'em.)

[Einmon]

I've been looking into this Geocaching thing. Sounds like fun, if a bit expensive to get the GPS solely for that purpose...

jjimm, I know what you mean about the computer games. We used to play Grand Theft Auto a lot and I've had trouble with the steering, too. I think it's the fact that you have to combine two different things: the view "from the top" that you actually see vs. the steering that goes contrary to what you expect from games.

Don't know if that's a spatial ability thing - with me it worked out after some practice, but it still takes an effort, and one of my friends never got the hang of it at all.

[jjimm]

Originally posted by rjung
Is it impolite to say I don't understand how someone could not read a map? :confused: To me it's like saying you don't know how to move your legs and walk... It's a skill, like any other, that has to be learned. A friend of mine who has travelled more than anyone I've ever met has a theory: as a gross generality, people in the third world can't read maps. But they're usually too polite to decline your request for directions. Therefore he always hands people the map upside down. If they turn it back the right way up, then he trusts their directions. If they don't, he asks someone else, or tries to figure out where he is on his own.

[Ferris]

Quickly reading this thread, it's interesting that nearly all the map-reading experiences here seem to relate to driving.

I was introduced to the joys of map-reading at a young age, walking in the Lake District in England with my father, who taught me about things like contour lines from the excellent Ordnance Survey 1:50000 maps. When I joined the scouts, we had plenty of opportunity to learn proper use of map and compass, including one memorable descent from a mountain during a blizzard.

I do agree that maps can be beautiful to look at though. Most of my school exercise books were faithfully covered with cheap travel maps of Europe and America, and I'm always excited when my National Geographic arrives in the mail with a map supplement.

[White Ink]

I was on a road trip once, and I took a little nap and let my other friend be the navigator for a while. She's the kinda gal that gives us mappy gals a bad name. When I woke up we were on county roads in the CA central valley. Despite the fact that the road names didn't match up correctly, I still was able to figure out where on the map we were, and more importantly, how to get from where we were to where we wanted to be.

One of my prouder moments.

[Primaflora]

I have no sense of left or right, I find it impossible to hold a mental image of how the map relates to the actual roads and I can't find north, south, east or west. They just do not click for me. Maps honestly make no sense to me. I've tried, I have really tried but it's just gibberish.

I don't navigate at all for Mr P. It's just not worth the drama.

[Ringo]

I make maps for a living. Not as a cartographer, though. My maps are geophysical maps which I must integrate with geological maps and datums. It makes no difference to me what angle I contemplate a map from, as the internal geometry of an individual fault block, while definitely related to the surrounding geological structuring and stratigraphy, are often entirely independent of North and South or East and West.

But, the geospatial definitions of the datums used to construct these maps are most assuredly rooted in our traditional systems of orientation.

When I'm not working, I am of those who have a "grid in mind" and can usually locate myself pretty well.

[peri]

Female designated navigator, here. Several years ago my boss took the office staff to Florence, Italy. I would arrive at the hotel after sight-seeing and find messages at the front desk from my boss (who had been there 7 times). She was lost and needed me to come find her. This happened every other day or so during our stay.

[Tikki]

When I was little we had a world atlas that I loved to look at. Seems I could read maps as soon as I could read at all. Love them!

The DeLorme topographical maps a the best book-bound ones but if you want something really spectacular, check out Paven Maps. You can get huge wall-sized topos that are absolutely wonderfully detailed. I got one of Washinton state for my Dad and would love to get more!

http://www.ravenmaps.com/Page.bok?file=index.html

[Mudshark]

I can read a map with some accuracy. As long as the map is detailed, and not a highway map.

[Publius]

Put me down as another guy who loves maps. I have a wide variety of them on my wall and otherwise scattered about my room, with a system of color-coded pushpins to note locations of interest. My love of maps tends to dovetail with my fascination with world events.

I'll also sometimes pick a country at random and see how much of it I can map freehand - including roads, pipelines, etc. - until I have to look the rest up.

Hey, it's a hobby.

[Tansu]

My SO and I like to sit up in bed and read maps.
I enjoy navigating on road trips.

[tomndebb]

It's a skill, like any other, that has to be learned. I don't think it is quite so simple. I taught myself to read maps at age six with a township map and the key from an old hand-me-down third grade text book. It was pretty intuitive at the time. I can glance at a part of a map and often recognize what it depicts even when I can't see the text, just by the outlines of the political boundaries or by the highway patterns or railway patterns, river paths or coast/shore boundaries. Deb taught herself to read maps, but has to re-teach herself each time she goes to use one.

Obviuosly, there is some education involved in reading a map and I suspect that there is a great deal of cultural background that goes into understanding many maps. However, I believe that "brain wiring" also plays a large part in the ability to read maps (or the lack of same).

[OldBroad]

Another map lover here. Road maps, topo maps, nautical charts, satellite images. Love our GPS, too.

[pestie]

Oh, MAPS! One of my favorite things in the world! Maybe it was because my father was a history/geography teacher, but I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have maps around me and know how to read them. Topo maps are my favorite. Inaccurate maps, or crappy gas-station road maps make me nuts. I can't tell you how happy I was when I started learning to fly and I got my first sectional chart. I buy boating charts even though I don't own a watercraft. When I first heard about GPS I almost wet myself with joy. When I finally got a GPS receiver I reached nirvana. Geocaching is one of my favorite things in the whole effin' world. And early in my career as a programmer I actually got hired to write mapping software! w00t!

Incidentally, although I have an excellent sense of direction and never had any problem reading maps, I have to think about left and right in order not to screw them up. I have no idea why. I nearly botched my driver's license test because I signaled wrong for a split second because I was told to "turn right" and didn't think about it first.

I had never met anyone who couldn't read maps until I met my last girlfriend. She had absolutely no clue about them. She didn't even know the most basic things, like the fact that Boston was east of Greenfield, MA (where we lived). I couldn't conceive of someone who'd made it through grade school and didn't know the compass points. And she's a smart woman, too. Go figure.

[CanvasShoes]

I don't "love" it, but I'm pretty good at it. I do get frustrated with the damn SIGNS in the lower 48 though.

My mom tells me it's perfectly normal and that everyone knows how to do it, but I find putting a teensy lavender colored sign 2 feet from the exit you want to take, (okay, I'm exaggerating a little), QUITE frustrating.

But with the map reading portion, and navigating, (other than my ancient eyes missing the teensy "this is your exit" signs) I consider it pretty good fun.

[CanvasShoes]

BTW pestie, I'm one of those who didn't learn the points of the compass until late in life (around 37 or 38, IIRC).

Oh, I knew the basic NEWS, but not how to orient myself etc. Anyone ever seen "City Slickers"? I think it was in the sequel.

The guys are riding somewhere and they're discussing "north" and how you can tell you're going north.
The conversation goes something like this (I only saw it once, YEARS ago, so any diehard City Slickers fans, please forgive me if I butcher the actual scene).

Guy one: How can we tell we're going north?
G2: We're heading straight ahead
G1: You're kidding, you mean to tell me that if we turned around and went the other way we'd be heading SOUTH????
G2: yeah
G1 makes a snort of disgust or some such and basically can't believe his ears.

I about died laughing at myself, that was SO me.

What's funny is that in cities, even ones unfamiliar to me, I'm pretty good at it, in rural or wooded areas? Forget it, I'm doomed.

[NinetyWt]

One of the first projects I did as I began my engineering career was a flood study for a large county here in Mississippi. As part of that study, we produced flood plain mapping which includes base flood elevations and delineations of floodplains and floodways. Flood studies are still one of my favorite types of projects. There's enough science in it to keep me fascinated, while drawing out the smoothly curving floodways appeals to my inner artist.

I also love contour maps. In my work I also delineate watershed boundaries by tracing ridgelines. I especially like the "provisional edition"s of USGS quadrangle maps. They have a lot more interesting stuff noted on them.

Soil maps are cool, too. The Natural Resorces Conservation Service (Formerly SCS) maps the soil types for every county in every state of the U.S. They are drawn on top of aerial photos, so you can see how the different land forms and man-made structures fit in with the different soil deposits.

I love maps. Absolutely love 'em.

[Broomstick]

Originally posted by Johnny L.A.
Is there any truth in the rumour that women are naturally not as good as guys at reading maps, due to different 2D/3D perception?I don't know about that, but I did hear that women and men prefer different types of directions. For example, a man might expect "Take Main Street north one mile to Offshoot Road. Turn left (west). Drive 3.2 miles to Overland Avenue." A woman might want something like "Take Main Street until you get to the Chevron station on the corner. Turn left and drive until you see the house with the block wall in front of it." From what I've heard, men prefer to have direction and distance while women prefer to have landmarks.>ahem!<

SOME of us women really are just as good at map reading/spatial stuff as men. In fact, I've been tested several times on this sort of thing and I consistently outscore 98-99% of the men.

Remember when you hear about a "naturally this that and the other" it's usually based on statistics and drawn from large samples of people. It's like saying "Most people are righthanded". Well, yes, but there are also millions of left-handed people. Or, another one of my favorites - "Women are very rarely colorblind". Yes, perhaps 1% or fewer of the female population is colorblind. In round numbers, that's about 80 MILLION colorblind women world-wide - more than the population of many countries. A small percentage, but a large absolute number.

Personally I prefer to have a combination. "Go north on Main one mile to Offshoot. There's a Chevron station on the corner. Turn west and go 3.2 miles to Overland. There is a house with a block wall there." I use my odometer whenever someone gives me a distance.Yo, Johnny, your pilot training is showing! Using both methods of navigation, the nerve! ;)

I've observed (very anecdotal) that women tend to favor pilotage and men favor dead reckoning - but the best navigators of any gender do both, and can switch systems when needed.

[CanvasShoes]

Originally posted by Scarlett67
Female map lover here. Will read them for fun, am always the navigator, etc. I do not turn the map with each turn, that's just silly.

Okay, I'm blushing now. I DO have to do that, I have to keep the map "visually accurate" so to speak.

In my defense, the marine battle training handbook tells marines to do JUST that!!

Turn the map so that it's oriented in the direction you're facing.