# Could you navigate to an address in an unfamiliar town using only a paper map? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855 "2017-01-11T04:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/61 "2017-01-12T00:33:50Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I could do it, and god damn, where do you go to find decent maps these days? Gas stations don’t sell them any more, just those crappy little laminated Best Of maps. I still get them from AAA - I refresh my State of CA map, the Southwest States map, and a few for Orange County area as well. Hmmm - been a few years. Need to stop by the office again. I miss the Trip-Tiks they made. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/62 "2017-01-12T00:38:56Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > I knew when I created this that the answers would skew positive simply because the demographic here is more mature and experienced and less young and YouTube commenter who would drive off a cliff if Garmin said to. As a countering bit of anecdata, I only ever seem to hear about elderly folks doing that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/63 "2017-01-12T02:55:51Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Backstory first. > > I’m working out of town this week in a moderate sized town (pop≈100k) that I have never been to before. While driving here it occurred to me just how different my preparations are now compared to when I started my career in the 90’s. > > Now: > [ul] > [li]Google [home] to [destination] to find out about how long I’ll be driving.[/li][li]Plug hotel address into Garmin just before I pull out of the driveway.[/li][/ul] > > Then: > [ul] > [li]Grab the Rand McNally Road Atlas[/li][li]Grab notepad and pen[/li][li]Look up the distance in the distance table if my destination is there. To a nearby major city if not.[/li][li]Plot my voyage on various maps as needed starting with[/li][LIST] > [li]US Highway map if the trip spanned multiple states.[/li][li]Final state map if the destination wasn’t directly on a main road.[/li][li]The city map if it was included in the Atlas.[/li][/ul] > > [li]Write out the route legibly enough to safely read while driving[/li][li]If I didn’t have access to a city map before leaving, stop for gas and local map when I arrive at city[/li][/LIST] > > I’m sure there are some small towns as the result of someone screwing up their navigation and winding up lost. Just saying to hell with it, I’ll start a new town here. > The poll: > Your mission, should you choose to accept it. You will be flown to an airport in a random city where you will be provided with a rental car and the necessary paper maps and a notepad required to accomplish your goal. Your starting location will be marked on the local map. Your goal is to navigate to an address in a city 500 miles from where you are using only paper maps which were provided. You will only be given the street address, it will not be marked on the map. You will have 14 hours to check in at the destination. > > If you take a wrong turn in Albuquerque and wind up hopelessly lost in Turkfuckistan this board will disavow all knowledge of your existence or mission. > > If you attempt to cheat or otherwise develop a solution outside the spirit of the challenge you will be sedated and an mp3 player will be implanted in your skull connected to high fidelity 5.1 Dolby surround sound bone induction speakers also implanted in your skull playing an endless shuffle loop of such classics as La Macarena, Achy Breaky Heart, My Humps, Swangin, I Love You (Barney), and Barbie Girl. This will be connected to a next-gen Tesla microbattery with a minimum play life of three years. > > Will you be able to reach the destination in the time limit? > > (Poll to follow) I always grabbed the map, and a highlighter pen, and marked my destination on the map, then looked at the possible routes and decide which way to go. Then I would plan where to stop for the night, and figure out meals, rest/gas stops and a budget. Yep, lots of work based road trips. And of course growing up in the era of loading the kids in the car and taking off on road trip vacations. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/64 "2017-01-12T03:39:12Z")
One extra resource back in the day was the local phone book, which would have a rudimentary street map for the town or city it served. I remember stopping at phone booths to find out the layout of a town. The challenge then was finding a phone book that didn’t have that map ripped out. The challenge today would be to find a phone booth or a phone book. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/65 "2017-01-12T06:30:12Z")
No problem here. I had very little trouble finding address in Japan using a Japanese street atlas and only basic knowledge of the written language. Also, had no problem while traveling in China with regular streets maps without any English on them. FTR, I don’t know Chinese. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/66 "2017-01-12T07:46:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Yup. Called TPCs; Tactical Pilotage Charts. Googling that can find you a few samples at very low resolution. The actual paper charts are about 4’ x 5’, printed on one side only and unwieldy as heck. Cool! Basically remembered it right based on a five minute conversation 30 some years ago. Now if I could only remember what my wife asked me to pick up on the way home. . . > [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > My wife has no sense of direction. It amazes me. I mean, how can you NOT know which way is North? Sure, if it is a cloudy night and you’re in a strange location and someone blindfolds you and spins you around few times, I can understand. But, in your own backyard at sunset? On a trip back to Salt Lake when my older sister also came back, it turns out that she had shifted the directions 90 degrees her entire life. She knew North was “up” and so assumed up the hill was North and not East. > [@Macca26](#): > > My parents were good at the paper map thing. But I got them a GPS and they’ve never looked back. There was nothing they hated more than missing the highway exit outside (big city) and then mom scrambling to see what the next exit should be, saying “take exit 56!!” and then dad yelling, “I just passed exit 56 tell me another one!!”. No more of that. Much happier. The funny thing is that many couples would do better to have the wife drive and the man navigate. > [@JpnDude](#): > > No problem here. I had very little trouble finding address in Japan using a Japanese street atlas and only basic knowledge of the written language. > > Also, had no problem while traveling in China with regular streets maps without any English on them. FTR, I don’t know Chinese. 😛 And for people who don’t know, it’s absolutely necessary to have a map or GPS for finding address in Japan. Most streets don’t have names, instead neighborhoods are names and address run around the block. Navigating in Taiwan where streets are named and numbers run consecutively down the street is soooooo much easier. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/67 "2017-01-12T16:27:20Z")
After 60 years of experience, I can open a road atlas at random, pick two points, and within seconds my eye will synch right to the route that will most likely combine all the travel efficiency and roadside features and driving experiences that will maximize my own idea of the pleasure of my trip. A picture that is impossible to get an overview of using any online mapping feature that I know of. As far as I know, all roads are still signposted with numbers that correspond with the numbers identifying the highways on the paper map, with analog arrows at the junctions… If you want me to go by Interstate, I can get up out of my chair and drive directly to any major city in the USA right now, without ever looking at any map. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/68 "2017-01-12T16:35:31Z")
I said “probably,” but I’ve only used a Streetfinder map. If a Rand McNally Road Atlas doesn’t have the same kind of listing/index in the back I’d probably be fucked. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/69 "2017-01-12T16:41:40Z")
I’m not so young that I haven’t had to use paper maps. Used to do it quite a lot, actually. So yes, assuming you’re not sending me to a location that doesn’t exist on an out-of-date map, I got this. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/70 "2017-01-12T18:38:45Z")
I can’t imagine in what way this would even be difficult, except other than numbering systems varying from town to town (like how in Manhattan the street addresses don’t line up the way they would in other cities), and the possibility of different streets having the same name in different parts of town, but I am assuming an address and a map that gives clues as to where the actual address numbers are, and in the case of a roads with the same name that might exist in different parts of the city, a district number or subdivision name or something else is given in the address and identified on the map. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/71 "2017-01-12T18:42:15Z")
I would have no problem. It would be interesting to see this poll in 20 years. 😃 Surprisingly, the magazine section of Target usually carries pretty good local maps. I’ve gone to them in a couple cities specifically for maps. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/72 "2017-01-12T19:04:00Z")
I think all the people who said they could do it didn’t consider the last step. The OP didn’t say whether the city map had a street locator. My mother grew up at the following address: 836 S. Alden St., Phila., PA. I defy you to find it without access to a street locator. It ran for a whole two blocks. Google will find it, of course. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/73 "2017-01-12T19:32:14Z")
Yeah I had to do this when I was health aide and go to new clients home in unfamiliar town. I had a Rand McNally Road Atlas and study it the night before I had to go to work. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/74 "2017-01-12T19:36:32Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > But can you drive three-on-the-tree? 😛 Yep. '63 Mercedes had that configuration. I kick-start my motorcycles and can ride one with a foot-clutch and tank shift. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/75 "2017-01-12T19:52:06Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > …If you want me to go by Interstate, I can get up out of my chair and drive directly to any major city in the USA right now, without ever looking at any map. This. > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I said “probably,” but I’ve only used a Streetfinder map. If a Rand McNally Road Atlas doesn’t have the same kind of listing/index in the back I’d probably be fucked. It’s a national-level atlas. The smallest detail listed is medium-sized towns. The intent of this atlas is to get you from anywhere in the US/Canada into the right county in the right state/province. For a big city, related suburb, or a big free-standing town it’ll get you to the town center or crossroads. After that you need a local detail map or directions to go the last couple miles. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I think all the people who said they could do it didn’t consider the last step. The OP didn’t say whether the city map had a street locator. My mother grew up at the following address: 836 S. Alden St., Phila., PA. I defy you to find it without access to a street locator. It ran for a whole two blocks. Google will find it, of course. A city map without a street locator is the kind of useless junk they successfully sell today but which would never have sold in the days before computerized navigators. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/76 "2017-01-12T20:31:22Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I think all the people who said they could do it didn’t consider the last step. The OP didn’t say whether the city map had a street locator. . . . Okay, wait: if my friend said, 1234 Jessamine Street, Los Angeles, then, yeah, it’s gonna take some time, poring over the map, until that street pops up. I can still do it if I have to, but it’ll take time. But any decent friend is going to give a little more detail: “A bit east of downtown, near Montebello.” And from that, it’s a snap. So…are you asking an abstract philosophical hypothetical question…or a real world one? In both cases, yes, I can do it. It just takes longer in one case. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/77 "2017-01-12T20:41:12Z")
I was in the Army drop me anywhere in the world with a map and a compass and I’ll get you home. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/78 "2017-01-12T20:57:15Z")
For navigating in cities, you need not just a map but a proper gazetteer of the street names as well, or at least the postal codes for the immediate neighbourhood. Not giving enough information in the first place would also be cheating, no? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/79 "2017-01-12T21:15:05Z")
Give me a compass and a USGS topographic map and I can get within ten feet of any random spot you threw a dart at, no roads or address numbers needed. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/80 "2017-01-12T21:26:22Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Okay, wait: if my friend said, 1234 Jessamine Street, Los Angeles, then, yeah, it’s gonna take some time, poring over the map, until that street pops up. I can still do it if I have to, but it’ll take time. But any decent friend is going to give a little more detail: “A bit east of downtown, near Montebello.” And from that, it’s a snap. > > So…are you asking an abstract philosophical hypothetical question…or a real world one? In both cases, yes, I can do it. It just takes longer in one case. Most street maps I remember had a letter/number grid (B-4, etc.) and a list of street names somewhere on it that showed which grid squares each street went through. Certainly not all of them, but it was considered a useful feature in the paper map days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855.md?page=5)