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Paper map sales are booming

wsj.com

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Re: Paper map sales are booming

#131

Post by kccqzy »

KMag wrote: post #118
pmontra wrote: post #101

If I go hiking in the mountains I'd bring with me a paper map just in case something happens to my phone or I run out of battery. A power bank backups only the battery, not a cracked or lost phone. Never lost a paper map though.

On a side note, hiking is incredibly popular in Hong Kong (mountain sides too steep to practically build residences right in the middle of one of the most densely populated places on Earth). However, Google maps is comically bad for hiking in Hong Kong. For years, the Mt. Butler HF radio station was marked as "gas station". (It's the only gas station I've seen with barbed wire locked gate and signs warning of guard d…

Do people actually try to use Google Maps for hiking? It never occurred to me to even try. I always go to the authority maintaining the hiking trails (NPS, or some state or county agency) and download PDF maps.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#132

Post by brewdad »

WWLink wrote: post #121
bombolo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being able to use a map is one of those skills which admittedly isn't all that useful today I've met people who constantly get completely lost despite the use of the phone. The issue with the phone is that especially under rain or trees, the position can be off of several hundreds meters, so you have to look around and find yourself on the map, because the phone really has no idea and is just guessing. The compass…

A lot of cars have the option to display a map on the radio screen, so I'm kinda surprised. I love using that thing! I always have an idea of the alternative streets available when I'm stuck in traffic because it's always there.

I had a rental car in LA once that couldn't decide if I was on the freeway, the off-ramp or the surface street nearby. It spent a good 10 minutes constantly telling me to make impossible turns or even U-turns before I turned it off and relied on my general sense of the area from previous visits and road signage.

GPS is great when it works and downright dangerous when it doesn't.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#133

Post by gregsadetsky »

No affiliation — an amazingly niche, caring paper map is this one of places to photograph in Iceland:

https://international-photographer.com/en/product/map-icelan...

(This is the 5th version of the map!)

The author only makes maps of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. They’re beautiful, annotated with camping and natural spring sites, and the photographic spots are unique and cover a wide range of terrain / vistas.

I car-camped the entire island and would refer to it to find my next stop. I wish the author made maps of more locations but I also understand that this is a work of dedication and patience.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#134

Post by AlotOfReading »

rjh29 wrote: post #100
kulahan wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Travel is such an personal thing - it's people in an environment at least somewhat foreign to them. Trusting someone to plan it is a pretty intimate thing, and companies don't do intimate things very well anymore. Too many people, too few companies. I'd pay good money for more personal experiences from companies, especially when it comes to something like this, but it's not easy. The wife and I were looking for a hon…

I understand why that niche doesn't exist - most people looking for a personal experience tend to plan it themselves. Though it would be nice to say "I want to go here, here and here" and have someone book all of the hotels and transport.

You can totally do that at the luxury divisions of firms like Scott Dun and Protravel if you have the money. They'll even get you a chauffeur and dinner reservations at that high end restaurant if that's what you want. If you need anything mid-trip just call the 24/7 concierge and they'll figure out how to get it to you.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#135

Post by MSFT_Edging »

arp242 wrote: post #111
eldaisfish wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

an interesting thought experiment is to ponder just how many skills are being lost due to technology. I know how to read a map and how to find rough compass bearings but i was never in a situation where i needed either skill. Could i manage without GPS - probably but i’m not confident. If GPS died tomorrow because of a solar flare, would the younger generations manage?

> If GPS died tomorrow because of a solar flare, would the younger generations manage? I learned to read maps when I was like 10; maybe younger. It's not that hard. I'm pretty sure they'll pick it up plenty fast enough when required. The real problem with a map shortages and scalpers selling maps for fucktillion dollars.

Ah scalpers, the true issue that will cause the death of our civilization.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#136

Post by madcaptenor »

kypro wrote: post #20

Something I find really fun when traveling in the car with kids is to give them a paper map and ask them to plan a route a for us to get to our destination. Then when you're driving ask them to follow along and give the directions. Obviously they can't be too young and they're not going to be perfect, but if you have a child around 7-13 they'll probably find this quite fun. Being able to use a map is one of those ski…

The younger kid version of this - I ask my four-year-old if we should turn or go straight (at places where I know either way will work). She also keeps looking at maps and pretending she knows how to make sense of them, so maybe I should work with her on that.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#137

Post by JCM9 »

dljsjr wrote: post #49

Anybody remember Triptiks from AAA? You'd go to a AAA office or call them on the phone, tell them where you were going, and in return you'd get a printed spiral top-bound pad with your trip broken down in to multiple legs, the roads/routes pre-highlighted, gas stops and prices estimated in, a list of sites for stopping off at, etc. All human curated and human annotated (the roads on your route were literally gone ove…

Yes. I remember going into the AAA office with my dad before family vacations to pick them up. They gave you a whole pre-trip briefing too on current construction, tips and any issues you might encounter. While apps like Waze do a great job of getting you from A-Z they completely lack the contextual information about where you’re going, things to see along the way and other details. One really had to pay a lot more attention to what was happening too vs just waiting for some voice in a box telling you to turn off the highway. Rest stops and roadside attractions where part of the adventure too vs todays boring cookie cutter outfits with the same chains.

I probably sound old and nostalgic but there were some things that were just “better” when life was a bit slower and not completely driven by tech—-and I’m someone that works in tech!

Those trips really felt like an adventure whereas now it’s just push some buttons and drive.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#139

Post by brewdad »

wyre wrote: post #79
wwweston wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GPS is best thought of as "directions as a service" (demand defaulting to JIT). What would probably happen is that people would start asking for / giving directions again; my impression is that maps have usually been secondary to this ad hoc social process of informal directions, and it would probably re-emerge.

I don’t know if this is true for older generations, but for myself and many of my zoomer and millennial friends barely know street names making giving or receiving directions much harder. Personally I rarely rely on turn-by-turn navigation but instead look at the map before hand and take a mental map of the directions to get there.

I always try to build a mental map of whatever area I'm traveling to. Even if only the major highways and arterials. My GenZ son is fully reliant on GPS to go anywhere he hasn't been at least three times before. While I'm sure he could build a mental map if he needed to, it's not something he does because he's never had to.

He also has no concept of road names. I was describing the route I would take when he needed to travel across the Seattle metro one time and any road other than I-5 was a complete unknown to him. It's a little scary to me.

Re: Paper map sales are booming

#140

Post by madcaptenor »

ajmurmann wrote: post #82
zikduruqe wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.gislounge.com/spatial-orientation-and-the-brain-... Studies have shown that people just cannot read maps anymore due to dependence on GPS apps in their daily lives.

That's odd to me. Even when using GPS I'm always looking at the map to figure out what the upcoming turns are because I have zero faith in the accuracy of the voice directions and arrows. Do people just follow the directions without understanding the route on the map?

Even if they are accurate, sometimes the voice directions don't give enough lead time if you need to change lanes.
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