|
|
|
Map folding
- Thread starter nobbie48
- Start date
Ask most people in ontario to point towards toronto and I expect over 50% to be off by more than 90 degrees. My wife is normally in that group.
I recall a time where CT Roadside Assistance would send you a whole package if you requested it long enough in advance of your trip.
Paper map with identified route, directions, and points of interest on the route.
Still managed to get lost somewhere between the GTA and Tampa Bay and lost 2hrs of travel time.
Paper map with identified route, directions, and points of interest on the route.
Still managed to get lost somewhere between the GTA and Tampa Bay and lost 2hrs of travel time.
Another +1 for a GPS - if you end up turned around and going the entirely wrong way, your paper map isn't going to be yelling endlessly in your ear to turn around and get you back on track.
Reminds me of a story from about 20 years ago where my sister did exactly that and drove half way to Windsor before she realized she'd got on the 401 going the wrong way in Mississauga. She might be @GreyGhost's "Couldn't point towards Toronto if her life depended on it" category lol.
That is, admittedly, one of the biggest losses of not having paper maps anymore. A lot of people who just use GPS's or their phone with Google Maps never spend any time with the map zoomed out to the 500-1000km (or heck, the whole country or continent) to get some spatial awareness of the bigger picture any longer. Not to say they'd do that with a paper map either, but when you were folding out the entire province on a desk in a hotel room or whatever and trying to figure out a route, well, it did lead to that a litle more at least.
But yes, a lot of people couldn't find themselves on a map of Ontario anymore sadly. I've seen this happen with my own kids.
While I'm all for GPS over a paper map...it would be silly to assume the GPS will always work. There are times where it just simply won't work. Whether it's signal issue, battery, or simply falling off the bike and getting damaged.
It works 99% of the time, it's the 1% that matters, and while a lot of people can't read a paper map (another issue), there's still a good reason to be familiar with the area, and be able to read a simple map.
It works 99% of the time, it's the 1% that matters, and while a lot of people can't read a paper map (another issue), there's still a good reason to be familiar with the area, and be able to read a simple map.
Good luck zooming out with a Garmin 396. The re-draw is horrendous; nothing but frustration.
I travel with both. GPS is handy for navigating cities. If I were only permitted one, paper would win.
I take my time, go off the beaten path; paper works. PP, you're an Iron Butt rider with a clear goal; GPS makes more sense for you.
I've never had that issue in basically 20+ years of relying on GPS now. Even phone based gps has the ability to download offline maps, battery issues, well, I suppose if by some chance you find yourself completely devoid of chargers. And now with both my phone as well as GPS built-in into the bikes infotainment I have a level of redundancy as well lol.
Not every ride is an iron butt endurance thing for me, not even close. I spent plenty of time going off the beaten path and just wandering as well, heck I had an entire week long solo motocamping trip to the Adirondacks last October based entirely around doing exactly that, and at no point did I feel like I would have been better off with a paper map versus my combination of Google maps, Waze, and the Scenic app.
I've just spent so much time using various GPS solutions in the last 25 years since it became mainstream (I log 8-12 hours a day of navigation every day for work) that paper just seems archaic in comparison now.
Ultimately I agree it's what floats everyone's boat and they feel best with, however. But me, I've embraced the technology and would never want to go back to paper again honestly.
Last edited:
My Waze claim to fame, almost 14 years since I joined up, I was one of the first users in North America.
I don't use it anywhere near as much as I use Google Maps on the average day for local/regional mapping, but it is one app I use exclusively when travelling long distances as it has saved me literally hundreds or thousands of hours of sitting in road closures and accidents, instead simply routing me around them.
I'm about 100,000 points and four years behind. Very limited data on my plans 13 years ago.
Never used Waze before in my life. Google maps works very well for my needs.
As for bike GPS, I started using an old Galaxy Note 8 as a dedicated GPS. Battery is good. Screen is good, and directions are good without a data plan.
The GPS I kindly got from @shanekingsley unfortunately died near the tail end of last season. But it had a good run of 10+ years.
As for bike GPS, I started using an old Galaxy Note 8 as a dedicated GPS. Battery is good. Screen is good, and directions are good without a data plan.
The GPS I kindly got from @shanekingsley unfortunately died near the tail end of last season. But it had a good run of 10+ years.
Cop alerts make waze better. They have started moving them to Google. On a trip back from Montreal, I ran Google.maps and waze on two different devices. Waze told me to get off near Belleville, Google Maps told me to continue on 401. I trusted waze. Saved probably four hours as highway was completely closed and it was many km to next exit. I jumped north a ways and stayed above the line of ants.
Last edited:
I find you can't turn waze off once it launches
On android, just hit back twice and it asks if you want to close it.
I'm on I-Phone. Even closing the app it stays running
IPhone annoys me. My last one was iPhone 4 and I don't anticipate getting one again.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I remember. I did the lower 48 and every Canadian province by road before I hit 22yrs old. old. I had Aaa maps for every corner of the USA.
The best situation I remember was being lost due to bridge closures in Portland OR around 1980. I finally flagged down a cabbie to see if he could get me back across the river. After 20 minutes of him playing failed routes out loud, he concluded “you can’t get there from here”.
It shuts off automatically a while after you reach your destination. Otherwise, it's *supposed* to stay running in the background if you open another app while it's still actively navigating as it's still sourcing and providing crowdsource data.
There is a power button somewhere in the app that shuts it off, but it's not front and centre like it is in google maps. Poor app design. It's far from my favourite navigation app so far as the user interface, not even close - it's quite horrible honestly, but it makes up for it in the crowdsourced info.
Worse case, just go back to your main screen, swipe up to bring up the task switcher, and then just swipe up on Waze to kill the app.
To shut it off within the app, exit any active navigation (key, as otherwise, yeah, it's completely designed to *stay* running forcefully) and then select the hamburger menu top left. In that menu click "sleep mode" and it'll shut down. You can also do that with active navigation still I believe if you want to pause and it'll pickup where you left off when you open it again.
I have a Garmin XT and use it for routes on bike trips. In the route planning stage for the big picture I use google maps on my 27" 4k monitor.
We also use the XT on back road car trips to supplement the onboard navigation system. Spouse loves pouring over maps and we always have detailed maps from MapArt or the local tourist bureau on hand as well.
MapArt has a wide range of maps available. URL below is for Ontario.
We also use the XT on back road car trips to supplement the onboard navigation system. Spouse loves pouring over maps and we always have detailed maps from MapArt or the local tourist bureau on hand as well.
MapArt has a wide range of maps available. URL below is for Ontario.
Furkot is an insanely powerful trip planning tool that someone here got me onto about 6-8 years ago. It does however have a steep learning curve.
With that out of the way it's an amazing tool for every single anspect of trip planning, and can export GPS .gpx files in a ton of formats.
I do all my big trip planning using it now and then dump the gpx files into my nav solution dujour. I think it'll even print paper maps and timelines if desired.
For short/day trips, it's Google Maps all the way. For A to B highway trips, Waze.
With that out of the way it's an amazing tool for every single anspect of trip planning, and can export GPS .gpx files in a ton of formats.
I do all my big trip planning using it now and then dump the gpx files into my nav solution dujour. I think it'll even print paper maps and timelines if desired.
For short/day trips, it's Google Maps all the way. For A to B highway trips, Waze.
|
|
|
|
|