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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Spatial cognition is the answer to the OP. cite .
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…
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!
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.
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.
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.)"
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.
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…
[aside] 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?
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.
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.
