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Comment by kuschku | Hacker News Reader

I just use Google Maps as actual map, not as navigation. That means I use it to find where I am, look at the roads, and look at where I want to go, and plan the route on the map myself.

This helps me to stay oriented when I'm not using a maps app as well, because I already know which roads intersect with which, where, and how to take them to get from A to B.

Sadly, Google Maps does everything they can to prevent you from doing this, e.g. not showing street names at all unless you zoom in to ridiculous levels (and often not even then) as well as not showing you which roads are one-way, which roads allow bicycles, etc.

That's why I mostly rely on Open Street Map and similar actual maps.

Also, if I've got additional time to get somewhere, I'll get lost on purpose, taking roads I don't know yet, then looking at the maps to figure out where I am (which is super useful to discover hidden paths and shortcuts).

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I use Google maps in exactly the same way and have the same complaint about street names not being visible. Sometimes I'll drop in to street view at an important intersection to see what landmarks pop out, like a certain gas station or business on the corner where I need to turn.

It's so funny when I'm with someone and navigating, they see me using Google maps and then are bewildered when I don't turn on the turn by turn yet still get where we're going. They almost can't believe it's possible.

my peeve is that if you bring up the terrain map, you see topo lines, but they disappear the moment you get close enough to actually read the elevation of the lines.

This has literally been a bug in google maps for going on 10 years and I'm amazed nothing has been done about it. Terrain could be SO MUCH more useful!

And the terrain map eats mobile data like candy

I’m “map only” too. Thanks for the suggestion re OSM. I’m trying Maps.Me and first thing I did was set the labels to larger. Interestingly, when I went back to Google map to compare, those labels are now larger too! I don’t see anywhere to set that in Google maps, and no other apps appear to have changed scale. That’s kind of creepy.

My habit is to look at a map days or weeks before going somewhere unfamiliar, usually that’s plenty. If I get turned around on the day, I pull over and have a look at the map again for 30 seconds, done. My family has gotten used to it, agree it’s a valuable skill requiring maintenance, tolerate my occasional mistakes as an opportunity to see something unexpected, and even brag about me to their friends.

We do use Google maps when traveling for the local restaurant recommendations, though. That’s a value it really does add.

> Sadly, Google Maps does everything they can to prevent you from doing this, e.g. not showing street names at all unless you zoom in to ridiculous levels

This has been my pet peeve as well. I do use Gmaps to show me the route and then I ride it on my bike without looking at the phone but if it is a route that I don't know yet I would like which street to turn at, all the while Gmaps refusing to be a map and telling me what the name of the street is.

Gmaps seems to be less of a map, more of a directory of locations and instructions how to get to those, so the actual streets on which the locations are is not interesting to GMaps at all and it doesn't put any effort into that usecase.

I can recomend the mapy.cz app. It uses OpenStreetMap data but is much smoother than other map apps that I've used.

I do this also, as a compromise. I still pre-learn routes to new locations and try to get as close as possible before resorting to gmaps directions.

Using a map app as an app(vs for directions) doesnt have the same deteriorating effect on your spatial navigation, because you are still conceptionalising your position as moving

Our brains are wired to wayfind by landmarks and understanding our location relative to them. Navigation mode in the app flips this on its head - your position is always center of the screen and the map context moves around you, so it is harder build that landmark association on a trip because you dont get a sense of how far you are through your journey relative to landmarks.

It's tough in urban cities that have one-way streets and relevant traffic patterns that are dynamic. If anything it's more dangerous to drive without GPS than with, given your attention is divided.

GPS is not a primary means of navigation (except under certain circumstances in the air and at sea, but that's an entirely different story). The rules of the road are the relevant ones, not what some computer without any formal authority may tell the driver. No automatic guidance is better than incorrect guidance.

I’m primarily using a bicycle, so I'm riding at much lower speeds than someone driving in a car would. I also have the luxury of being able to stop at the side of the road to take a look at the map if I get lost.

And one-way streets almost always allow cyclists to take them in both directions, so that's not an issue either :)

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