# 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:** 5
**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, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/81 "2017-01-12T22:42:13Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > 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. Grin! I won’t bet against you, but, man, there are some doggone inaccessible places in the U.S.! How are you at climbing the face of Half Dome? > [@DrCube](#): > > 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. Yes! That was one of the best bits of the old Thomas Brothers maps. (Also, zip code boundaries.) ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/82 "2017-01-12T22:56:17Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > 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 did specify that you would have the paper resources necessary to get to your destination. That includes a local map with a street index. The ones I’m familiar with were gridded with letters on one axis and numbers on the other. So you’d look up Sycamore street on the index and it would reference you to G-10. That would get you to within a few inches of the street on the map. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/83 "2017-01-12T23:09:44Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > 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. To me one of the most amazing things about the automotive GPS is that it holds that level of detail for (typically) every city and town in North America, all within a little plastic box. And presumably there are equivalent maps for other large geographies like Europe. I can hardly believe that I was once contemptuous of the automotive GPS because, hey, you had maps and you had marked roads, and my initial GPS experience was with marine units where the necessity was more obvious. Here, their value was abundantly clear, where they obviated having to squint at distant coastlines and trying to match that up with charts and dead reckoning, told you exactly where you were at all times, and gave you virtual highways to your destination. In cars it’s more of a convenience than a necessity if you have maps, but the convenience is immense and I quickly became a true believer! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/84 "2017-01-12T23:13:00Z")
I learned how to use a map in JROTC, & now I make maps for a living! Piece o cake. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/85 "2017-01-13T00:50:04Z")
Probably. I’d easily get to the correct town. But depending on the final destination, the exact address could be my downfall. I think I’m good with maps, I understand how they work, and I can follow directions - but get lost really, really easily. I’ve spent far too much of my life saying things like “The red building there is 300 Elm Street; the grey building there is 400; so where the everloving fuck is 342 Elm Street?” only to find out later that 342 was the back of a building and couldn’t be seen from the street, or even though the sign said “Elm” on one corner, halfway down the street it had become “Maple,” and the street I was looking for was somewhere else entirely or I’d really been looking for 342 Elm Drive or even occasionally, I was just entirely and utterly wrong to be 100% confident. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/86 "2017-01-13T00:53:31Z")
I drove using maps for thirty years. It takes a bit of planning for cross country trips. You plan the next days drive each time you stop at a motel. Making note of the roads, exit numbers and turns. I always hated approaching a city and navigating the bypass. A lot of merging lanes, exits and so forth. You really needed a 2nd person reading the map to avoid a wrong turn. I can still use maps. I prefer my Garmin but maps work just as well. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/87 "2017-01-13T01:25:44Z")
> [@Pabitel](#): > > I, of course, have heard of those GPS systems and have seen ads for them, but I do not own one and have never seen one in use. I don’t know, because I haven’t used one, but they seem to me like they would be incredibly annoying. > If I am going somewhere I have never been before I will usually get driving instructions from Google Maps and have the route on a paper map. I’m not sure why you would need anything more. > Before Google I would just use a paper map and, maybe, put on mark at my destination. Perhaps you want more information than just a direct route to your destination. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/88 "2017-01-13T01:27:16Z")
I have done it. But it is not fun, and different cities present different problems. I was an interpreter in Indianapolis in the late 80s-early 90s, and had to find a new address on the average of every three days. I had to figure driving time myself, and add about 20 minutes. Indy is terrible (worse then, not much better now) about getting street signs replaced when they are downed, so it is easy to miss a turn, and in Indy, you cannot make three right turns and get back where you were. I don’t know why, you just can’t. If you miss a turn, you have to make two often hair-raising U-turns. When I was 22, I was a very timid driver, and missing a turn terrified me. Also, Indy is lousy about labeling intersections. It is really hard to tell where you are just by following street signs, and sometimes streets change names randomly. Now, I have been in bigger cities than Indy, including unfamiliar parts of New York City, London, Prague, Washington DC metro area (the whole Maryland-DC-Virginia area, which actually still might not be bigger than the Indy metro area, but still a “big city”), and Chicago, for which paper maps worked just fine. Of course, I was using public transportation in those cities. Indy, for all practical purposes, does not have public transportation. TL;DR: it depends oh so very much on the city. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/89 "2017-01-13T02:53:48Z")
I do this all the time, just for sport. I don’t use GPS ever. Sometimes I make it harder by only allowing one look at the map before I leave. I usually forget the street name, but not what it looks like or where it goes. ---
**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 13, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/90 "2017-01-13T03:31:03Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > Probably. > I’d easily get to the correct town. But depending on the final destination, the exact address could be my downfall. > I think I’m good with maps, I understand how they work, and I can follow directions - but get lost really, really easily. I’ve spent far too much of my life saying things like “The red building there is 300 Elm Street; the grey building there is 400; so where the everloving fuck is 342 Elm Street?” only to find out later that 342 was the back of a building and couldn’t be seen from the street, or even though the sign said “Elm” on one corner, halfway down the street it had become “Maple,” and the street I was looking for was somewhere else entirely or I’d really been looking for 342 Elm Drive or even occasionally, I was just entirely and utterly wrong to be 100% confident. You’d love it around here. 10th Street and 10th Court are adjacent and parallel to each other. 10th Ave and 10th Terrace are adjacent to each other and parallel to each other. But they’re perpendicular to 10th St & 10th Ct. So there are 4 intersections near each other arranged in a square pattern that are each properly the corner of 10th and 10th. Each town has 4 sets of these 4 corners. Labeled NW, NE, SW, & SE. Which sets may be a few blocks, or many miles, apart from each other. And each town (= contiguous abutting suburb) restarts the numbering scheme. Within 50 miles of me and still wholly within the greater contiguous suburban MetroBlob there are easily 40 sets of 4 nearby intersections between 10th & 10th. It’s very, very logical and utterly consistent. It’s also not very user friendly to the uninitiated. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/91 "2017-01-13T03:40:43Z")
Used to do this all the time, one hand on the wheel and one finger (of the other hand) on my location on the street level map, in that I predicted Google maps’ functionality. Now with that said I have not used those skills in quite some time, and my near vision is not as good as it was, but I’m sure I could do it. Also I had a intermediate stage where I had a GPS with roads and I could set my destination but there was no routing, just a direction arrow and distance to it. It worked most of the time, one time I came within about 200 feet be could not get there due to a train track trench, it took about 30 minutes to go around. ---
**Author:** ![Mist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Mist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mist)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/92 "2017-01-13T04:30:52Z")
I’ve done it before, but when I had a little knowledge of where I was, and I wasn’t miles and miles from the destination. I get lost if I go in the other direction from where I’ve already driven, so I voted “Nope. I’m going to…” I seriously get lost VERY easily! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/93 "2017-01-13T04:37:21Z")
I voted “Of course” - paper maps are still how I get around foreign cities, after all. But I have one condition - the street address has to be in a sensible Western-style format, not the no-street-name Japanese system. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/94 "2017-01-13T04:37:22Z")
No problem. I’ve got this covered. …but I also want some of that Morovian sugar cake! Thanks for the recipe link! ETA: Not only can I navigate with only a paper map, I can get back to anywhere I’ve ever been without any aids at all. Even if I’ve only been there once before and even if it was over 35 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/95 "2017-01-13T21:53:00Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > . . . the no-street-name Japanese system. Can you describe this more fully? I’m not quite getting it… Like, 4654 Manhattan? Or whut? ---
**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 13, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/96 "2017-01-13T23:29:38Z")
See post #66 for more on Japanese addresses. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/97 "2017-01-14T05:08:35Z")
Japanese addresses are cellular: Building 44 Block 16 Minato District Asakusa Ward Tokyo You need a local map to figure out which is block 16, and you may have to walk all the way around it to find Building 44. However, it’s common for such a map to be posted a few places around the neighborhood. Wikipedia has [a more detailed explanation.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_addressing_system) ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/98 "2017-01-14T12:24:49Z")
Once I was trying to find the address of a small museum in Tokyo. I knew I was roughly in the right area but I didn’t have a detailed map or I couldn’t figure it out, I forget so I stopped in a fancy shop selling tea and asked the sales clerk for directions. Of course, I didn’t know any Japanese and she couldn’t speak any English, I just had the address written in Japanese, so she decided to show me the way. Mind you, she was completely kitted out in kimono, obi, and geta and she could walk very fast despite that. Tiny cell phone maps are just an backup, useful until you find your way to the tourist office in order to get a proper paper plan de la ville. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/99 "2017-01-14T13:39:17Z")
Here in New England we don’t believe in consistent road signage, so things could be a bit tricky. But most places, no problem. Assuming I could get my hands on an up to date detailed map, like the 80 page one I have of Greater Boston, or the over 200 page tome my Dad used to use for the Baltimore-Washington area. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-navigate-to-an-address-in-an-unfamiliar-town-using-only-a-paper-map/776855/100 "2017-01-14T15:23:59Z")
We travel a lot in our RV, spending up to a month on the road, and pretty much exclusively use a road atlas. I always have my iPad Air with us just in case we get totally turned around somehow, but that’s rarely been the case. [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=4) [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=6)