Road Maps

[Slink_Pink]

Does anyone still use/carry one?
What is your preferred brand/scale/coverage?

For 'local' coverage, I quite favour the Philips Street Atlas range, although coverage on this side of the border is a little less. I particularly like the spiral binding and the large scale showing good street detail.

For 'national' coverage, the last one I had (2004) was ok but I chucked it recently as it had suffered somewhat from kicking around the boot of the car. Looking for suggestions for a replacement.

[jont]

I use one. Lots. For "local" coverage you can't beat an OS landranger, but they're a bit impractical for refolding on the move

For me the most important factor is whether the atlas differentiates between wide and narrow "white" roads. Wide narrow whites are generally pretty useable. Narrow whites are essentially single track and often very slow.

I've got various scales - a 600-odd page atlas is great for detail, but you often end up page flicking. I've got a 100-odd page one too which can fit a 200mile driving day on two pages, but often lacks crucial detail in town.

[PeterE]

I like the A-Z road atlas as it shows the detailed layout of grade-separated junctions.

A spiral-bound atlas is much easier to use in the car

[sussex2]

I always carry one and prefer the large page AA type which can be seen at a glance if it is sitting on the passenger seat.
Just in case anyone thinks the idea of still using a map is not fashionable I'll tell you the following:

A very senior pilot acquaintance who has got more air miles under his belt; and despite flying a modern all singing and dancing super large aircraft always carries a selection of road maps.
He refers to them and the reason being that he always want to know exactly where he is.
The scale and reference they give you especially as regards terrain cannot be beaten.

[christopherwk]

Most of my driving for work is in and around London, and I use this, as a back up.

Central London is 9 inches to 1 mile, normal scale for the rest of London, and main routes for the M25 area.

Before portable sat navs, and smartphones were common, I used to use this, which was a standard scale street map covering South East England. it was very cumbersome and the size and weight of a telephone directory.

Any other jobs I had which were further afield, I just popped into a petrol station and bought a local map for a few pounds.

[zadocbrown]

I wouldn't be without one. I prefer spiral bound, and it must show the width of c class roads. Also have an a to z for finding things locally.

[TheInsanity1234]

Heh, y'all need to catch up to the modern age!

If my parents need to find somewhere and our sat-nav isn't helping out, and I'm in the car, I'll usually bring up Google Maps on my phone.
Excellent, and has not yet let us down. I've only used it for finding things in town, so cannot comment on how good it is in terms of long distance journeys.

But if any of you have a smartphone, Google maps is quite a good way to go

[Horse]

Heh, y'all need to catch up to the modern age!

If my parents need to find somewhere and our sat-nav isn't helping out, and I'm in the car, I'll usually bring up Google Maps on my phone.
Excellent, and has not yet let us down. I've only used it for finding things in town, so cannot comment on how good it is in terms of long distance journeys.

But if any of you have a smartphone, Google maps is quite a good way to go

Tosh and nonsense, I'm sorry to say.

I'll happily use a satnav, phone or purpose-built. But I wouldn't be without a decent map, and prefer the A-Z (for the 'junctions' reasons given earlier.

On your phone, can you scribble against m-way services 'Yuck' when appropriate, mark way points for a treasure hunt, or quickly find a route around congestion just by a glance?

[TheInsanity1234]

Heh, y'all need to catch up to the modern age!

If my parents need to find somewhere and our sat-nav isn't helping out, and I'm in the car, I'll usually bring up Google Maps on my phone.
Excellent, and has not yet let us down. I've only used it for finding things in town, so cannot comment on how good it is in terms of long distance journeys.

But if any of you have a smartphone, Google maps is quite a good way to go

Tosh and nonsense, I'm sorry to say.

I'll happily use a satnav, phone or purpose-built. But I wouldn't be without a decent map, and prefer the A-Z (for the 'junctions' reasons given earlier.

On your phone, can you scribble against m-way services 'Yuck' when appropriate, mark way points for a treasure hunt, or quickly find a route around congestion just by a glance?

Yep. Yep.
The last one, I get live traffic feeds, so even better!

[jont]

Heh, y'all need to catch up to the modern age!

If my parents need to find somewhere and our sat-nav isn't helping out, and I'm in the car, I'll usually bring up Google Maps on my phone.
Excellent, and has not yet let us down. I've only used it for finding things in town, so cannot comment on how good it is in terms of long distance journeys.

But if any of you have a smartphone, Google maps is quite a good way to go

Tosh and nonsense, I'm sorry to say.

I'll happily use a satnav, phone or purpose-built. But I wouldn't be without a decent map, and prefer the A-Z (for the 'junctions' reasons given earlier.

On your phone, can you scribble against m-way services 'Yuck' when appropriate, mark way points for a treasure hunt, or quickly find a route around congestion just by a glance?

Yep. Yep.
The last one, I get live traffic feeds, so even better!

And in the middle of Wales where there's no phone signal?

Mind you, was annoying a couple of times when I needed breakdown and while I could give them a grid reference to <50m they couldn't cope without a road name

[TheInsanity1234]

And in the middle of Wales where there's no phone signal?

Mind you, was annoying a couple of times when I needed breakdown and while I could give them a grid reference to <50m they couldn't cope without a road name

I know that the latest incarnation of Google Maps will automatically download and store the map along a route (plus about 3 others) you have calculated so there's no worries about not being able to use the map in areas of no signal.
If you're in the middle of Wales, I suspect traffic is an unlikely issue

[Mike H]

We have a road atlas in each car and we also have one in the motorhome. In fact I generally buy a new road atlas when I buy a new car, so they're never very far out of date

I have a sat-nav and we both have smart phones.

By far and away the road atlases are used most often and only very occasionally do we use the sat-nav/phones to find an exact address in an unknown area. Only when we're in Europe might we use the sat-nav more, but that tends to be more for long haul stuff, so as not to miss critical junctions. When touring, you can't beat a good road map . In fact we've had the 1cm=2km French atlas out tonight planning holiday routes for July

[zadocbrown]

All my navigation cock-ups happen when following Sat nav. Maps are more reliable in the real world, they just require more initial effort. The best way is actually to use both. I have one map in the house for checking routes before setting off, another in the car for when I need it, and sat nav when I think it will be helpful. A proper map is a vital piece of safety kit: just like a tyre pump if you don't have it you will one day regret it. In any case, a paper map is just easier to use for long or complex routes - or so I find.

[MGF]

Often when planning a route I memorise the GSV image of the junctions I need to take. I find it helpful, particularly as I can identify landmarks to look out for.

[fungus]

I use A to Z maps when I need more detail, and Collins, Phillips, AA style maps for journey planning. I also have many O/S Landranger maps which are very good but awkward when in the car.

I have a sat nav, but it did try to take me through Wimborne cemetry on a driving lesson once.