I love quadrants, it narrows things down and makes it a LOT easier IMO, but anything right on the border of a quadrant that is not RIGHT downtown is horrible. I was an hour late to a job interview because the bus went NW not NE and there was no direct way to walk to this office from the train station that was a spit away except to cross through a big field with a silo of some kind.
Here’s one that boggles me still. Last summer we were going camping (sweetie, Velociraptor and myself) and were meeting in the middle. So I pack up the car and off we go to Lacombe which was the only place he could get a site (long weekend). Drive into town and realize I must have gone too far so I pull over at the first gas station I see to ask directions.
Me: Hey where can I find the campground?
Him: … There’s one at Gull Lake.
Me: I know, but Sweetie is here. There’s a campground in Lacombe, right? Where is it?
Him: Lacombe?
I walked out in disgust then. Thankfully the other customer overheard and told me I overshot, just go back up the road and hang a left. That was when I saw the teeny camping sign.
What kind of gets me is when people need directions in Manhattan. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a city more logically laid out. (I understand that below 14th St. things get a little weird.) Maybe Salina, KS is as good. Maybe.
I haven’t spent much time there but I’ve had people ask me directions.
“Can you tell us how to get to the Empire State Building?”
“Yeah, it’s at 34th and 5th.”
“Where’s that?”
“This is 38th and 6th, so go that way one block and take a right. Then go four blocks and look for a freakishly tall building.”
“What’s the name of the street where we turn?”
“Uh… 5th.”
Granted, it can be an overwhelming and confusing place, but seriously, it’s not tough if you know the intersection near where you want to go.
That’s a bit mean, but given how huffy people can be when asking directions (as in both of your examples) I can’t say that I blame you.
Once I was strolling down a major street in my burg, Rochester, New York. A seemingly nice woman asked me for directions to Schmuck Street. Since that started just a bit to the west of us (and it only ran to the north) I thought: Easy one. There was only a single intermediate side street, Nincompoop Street.
*Just walk on down that way, and first you’ll see Nincompoop Street–
Her, testy voiced: No. I want Schmuck Street.
Me, maintaining composure: Okay. I’m telling you how to get there. First you’ll see Nincompoop Street. The next side street is Schmuck Street.
Her: (nothing)*
Good grief! You’d think that people would be more patient when someone is politely answering a question from a stranger. And if they can’t be polite… Well, there are maps and street guides. There was even a comprehensive city/inner suburbs map in the front of the local official Yellow Pages.
I was tempted to give her directions to a somewhat lower-altitude location.
People can get really huffy. I had this exchange once:
“Excuse me, young man.”
“Yes?”
“I was wondering if you could help me.”
“Sure, I can try.”
“I need directions to somewhere.”
We then had a staring contest. I had an expression on my face that said for her to continue. She had the expression of a zombie. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but it felt like forever. Finally I decided to say something to get the conversation rolling along.
“What are you looking for?”
She got really pissed. “That’s what I was just about to tell you!”
On a bus to work one monring, I overheard another passenger ask the driver where she should get off for a certain apartment complex on Campbell. Thing is, there are two stops for Campbell because of its “L” shape; I was getting off at the first one and tried to get the other passenger to come along. She declined because the driver said to get off at the other end, where there are shops and restaurants but no apartments.
So I went to work, put down my briefcase, and went back downstairs. I met the lady at Campbell & Randolph and pointed out the three buildings that comprise the complex she had mentioned. She wanted the management office, which is on the short end of the “L” and next door to the building where I got off.
Until two years ago, I worked in the Crystal City neighborhood. Interesting mix of hotels, apartments, offices, retail, and a Metro stop. When I had time, I’d offer help to the obviously lost, but that changed when the county decided to alter the street addresses to better correspond to the actual entrance locations. I had a seaman ask directions once and I had to tell him, “Sorry, after they changed the addresses, I don’t know where anything is! Do you know the name of the building?” He didn’t. I did direct him to a nearby map, though.
Ah, sorry, I misread you. I was thinking you were having them go down 6th Ave. to 34th St. and then take a right (which would be wrong), instead of cutting over to 5th Ave. on 38th St. and then heading south (which would be right and correct). The “go that way one block” should have tipped me off; apologies!
In my defense, however, I still think it would be easier to send them my way, down 6th Ave and then hang a left. Obviously either way gets you there, but my instinct is to keep people who don’t know much about the city (i.e. tourists) on Avenues as much as I can. And walking across 34th St. from 6th to 5th Ave. is a much more pleasant and open-air walk than crossing 38th St. (34th is a major street and has twice as many lanes). Plus you can tell them to check out Macy’s on the way!
I know it sounds silly, but if you don’t expect it to be logical, it can be very confusing. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, where there were no street numbers, and went to college in Boston, where the numbers make no sense at all, even if they aren’t trying to actively get you lost. It was a shock when I moved to California and realized the numbered streets went in order, and house numbers go in order and odds on one side, evens on the other. It’s like they planned it.
Trap streets were never as common as laymen think they were. The legal value of such “traps” was always a little dubious, and since 1991 (the Feist decision) they have been of no legal use whatever.
Needless to say, the three data providers for satnav/GPS systems are in fierce competition to have the most accurate data sets. But it’s a big complicated world out there. As it happens, I drew the phone book maps for Globe-Superior-Miami, and so I have a better understanding than most people of the shortcomings of Gila County datasets. To find out the streetnames for Miami south of the highway, I spent the afternoon at the volunteer fire department.
Maybe they were hard of hearing, and only heard you when you yelled “ANYWHERE ELSE ON EARTH”?
That would be Post Oak in Houston.
What you should do is give them partial directions (“Go that way for 7 blocks”) and then tell them to stop and ask somebody there.
Did he then say, “Sorry, I’m not going that far, can’t help you,” and drive off?
Oddly enough, I have found that people that work at gas stations, convenience stores, retail outlets (pharmacy), etc do not actually know the area, and usually can’t give you directions. Every time I’ve asked anyone like that about something local, I get blank looks and “I don’t live around here”. The latest was I wanted to drop something in the mail as I was heading out of town. I stopped at at store to buy a gift card, then got on the highway, and stopped in an area of the city I don’t hang out looking for a post office. Tried convenience store, then pharmacy, finally one of the customers told me where to find it, a couple blocks away. Seems odd to me, I mean I run errands during the day from work, so I would expect people to know how to find things nearby their place of work (maybe during lunch, or coming and going). But I also live a couple blocks from my office, so to me they’re the same.
I hate this type of naming convention. Why the hell do they need a Goodyear Court and a Goodyear Avenue? Goodyear Court and Firestone Avenue would lead to much less confusion. Better yet, Goodyear Court and “Nothing related to tire companies Avenue.”
