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Comment by rpedela | Hacker News Reader

I know people who are unable to navigate without their phones. If they spent some time in the wilderness, they would start to learn, intuitively, which direction is north, south, etc. They would learn how to read a map, including topo maps. They would start to learn how to create a mental map of their surroundings or at least remember where they had been. They would start learning what do when lost. All very helpful if the internet is down, their phone dies, or they get caught up in a natural disaster back in civilization.

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That seems like two different use cases. While that helps you to tell direction, it doesn't help you navigate to 9134 Grocer Place, which is what I think most people use Google Maps for, and for which a topo map would be less than useless. Do you know people who Google Maps their way camping?

> Do you know people who Google Maps their way camping?

Yes. Google Maps has pretty good coverage of popular trails and topography and can be used if you have signal.

> it doesn't help you navigate to 9134 Grocer Place

It absolutely can if you have some familiarity with the area and no signal. If from previous experience, you generally know where Grocer Place is then finding 9134 just takes patience. You don't even need to have necessarily been to that specific street before if you have a mental map of the area.

> a topo map would be less than useless

For finding a street address, true. But knowing how to read a topo map helps someone learn how to read and navigate natural landmarks which can be helpful in a natural disaster scenario or in a city if they are lost and no signal. I invite you to spend some time orienteering, I think you'll start to understand where I am coming from.

> Yes. Google Maps has pretty good coverage of popular trails and topography and can be used if you have signal.

Ah, I was thinking back country - everywhere I've gone there's no signal, and if I'm front country, you can always just use the obvious trail markers.

Your use case for direction finding isn't relevant to an urban user. If you are familiar with the area, chances are you don't need a topo map, and you don't need to orienteer your way either - you'll understand the street numbers and landmarks. I'm also confused as to how using google maps affects your ability to become familiar with an area - I've found that by the 3rd time I've gone somewhere I no longer need maps at all, but I was using it up until then.

> I'm also confused as to how using google maps affects your ability to become familiar with an area - I've found that by the 3rd time I've gone somewhere I no longer need maps at all, but I was using it up until then.

Many people are naturally good at creating a mental map regardless of how they navigate initially. It sounds like you are one of them. However there are plenty of people who don't seem to have that innate skill. Wilderness orienteering experience would help those people. In my experience, it also helps everyone navigate in unfamiliar surroundings (urban or not) if they don't have signal. It is a form of transfer learning to use an ML analogy.

>You don't even need to have necessarily been to that specific street before if you have a mental map of the area.

I, for one, am not going to waste my mental energy making a mental map of Houston. The city PROPER has an area of 670 mi^2, which is equivalent to fifteen San Francisco's. The metropolitan area is over 200 San Francisco's. I regularly drive 40 miles to get from one side of the city to another, for whatever particular errand I need to run that day. The Houston metro area is officially over 10,000 square miles - that's larger than (pick one): Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, or Maryland.

I'm not building a "mental map" of an area larger than the entire state of Massachusetts. Saying it's on par with the total area of the country of Switzerland would not be much of an exaggeration.

Maybe the city was different before cell phones. Maybe each neighborhood either had everything you needed or you just went without. Now, because GPS/Google Maps exist, the highest quality businesses pop up in super random spots around the city, and you'll never be able to have a clue how to get to them all without Google Maps.

"Back in the day" you didn't live in an integrated metropolis the size of Switzerland. But we do now...so the tools we need to enable that are now legitimately "needed" and non-optional. This very well may be hazardous to our health, but its not really an option.

I'll load up Google Maps offline for the area, plus digital top maps, plus paper maps & GPS & compass, plus have an innate sense of area & direction. GM is most convenient (even with no connection).

Do you use Google Maps to go from place to place, or just for the aerial views? I didn't know Google Maps could do that.

Edit: I just checked and see that it can do some places, mostly day hikes, but didn't have my other hikes or their campgrounds.

It doesn't have everything, but it does have a lot (way more than it did not long ago) which can nicely augment other mapping tools.

none of this is helpful.

You cant just navigate to a random address by knowing which way is north.

What about a known address when you are lost and don't have signal?

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