Is map-reading a lost art? In era of GPS, here's what map fans say we're losing

I make maps of natural surface, single track trails, basically mountain biking / hiking trails, for a local volunteer group. The workflow is typically mapping things electronically into OpenStreetMap, then exporting data from there and making print maps in two versions: one with "you are here" stuff for trailheads/intersections and the other for general use/reference.

Typically these trails have marker posts at major intersections with a number on them, often an indicator pointing the way to the next number, and a colored arrow indicating the loop they are on.

After I started doing this, and watching people reading the maps at the trailhead, I was amazed that user split into two stark camps: those who can read maps and those who can't. For those who could, the maps are exactly what they need, be them print or on some OSM app or whatnot.

For those that couldn't... They would get amazingly lost quickly, even when the trails are sight-distance, no more than 100' or so, apart. I've helped folks who, as example, I show that the post has a #2 on the top, I show them the direction to #3 and that they can follow the "yellow" arrows, and they just freeze. And then sometimes ask if there's an app that will tell them which way to turn.

I grew up looking at maps, using them with signage and such for navigation as I learned to drive, and I never realized just how much I took this skill for granted until I encountered other adults who simply can't.

(An example map: https://trailmaps.app/pdf/riverbends/CRAMBA_River_Bends_Trai...)

I haven't read a map in decades now and think about this.

But it's not like the original skill was hard to acquire, in the absence of GPS I think most people could pick up map reading in a few days.

What is gone that I can't imagine coming back soon is the non-map direction giving people used to provide. Wonder how many people on HN are old enough to remember the endless debate between "street direction" people (e.g. just turn left on to Main St, then right on Douglas) vs the "Landmark direction" people (e.g. turn left just before the McDonald's after the Exxon gas station).

I dropped my 16 year old son off at the commuter rail station last summer, as he was going to go into Boston and go bowling with his friends. When I got home, I noticed his phone had fallen out of his pocket and was sitting in the passenger seat. I drove back to the train station but he had already gotten on his train. When he got home that evening, it was quite interesting hearing how he had to come up with new solutions to navigate the city and find his friends at the bowling alley, as this was a skill he had never learned or needed with his phone handy. He was quite surprised at the inability and/or unwillingness of people he asked to give him any direction. He did manage to get hold of a tourist map from a Mormon street preacher, which helped after he figured out how to read it, but only listed major streets and so only got him sort of close. He finally managed to get somebody to look the address up on Google maps and he drew in the smaller streets on his paper map.

A simple life hack is to keep your GPS in "North Up" mode. You can follow directions while still maintaining spatial awareness. I started doing this many years ago after a particularly egregious routing error sent me an hour in the wrong direction.

GPS does exist, sure, but I still often see tourists in my city look at a paper map. While standing in the middle of a busy sidewalk. People still ask for directions too, especially the older ones who are less likely to have or use a smartphone and/or mobile data.

When I was a kid, we lived in an area the rebels were known to visit. I didn't spend much time outside our family compound or the school grounds and the area in between was pretty safe. But my mom made sure we had small maps with us at all times and knew how to read them. Areas to avoid like the edge of town were well marked.

I've always loved maps. There may be survivorship bias here. Had I hated maps as a child, would I have been less careful where I roamed? Probably not, but I can't say for sure.

Later on I discovered The Hobbit, which had maps of middle earth (The Hobbit had maps, right? I'm not thinking of LoTR, am I?) When we returned to the states, we always had USGS sectional maps around the house. I spent some time in scouting, mostly cause I really enjoyed camping and orienteering. I bemoan the loss of orienteering w/ paper maps and dead reckoning angles and whatnot.

In the military I would guess I was in at least the top 15% of the class on map reading and spacial reasoning. After 18 years of dealing with maps, it's no surprise. There were SO MANY people who literally could not read a map to save their lives. I have uttered the sentence "No Sir, If you travel town that road you will encounter land mines, as indicated on this map." -- The key here is if you're going to contradict your chain of command, do it respectfully.

I think I may use Google Maps differently than most people. I'll look at the map to figure out where I'm going and what the major streets are and then just start driving. Looking at the map application constantly seems to get in the way of forming spacial memories. Though I really only do this in my home town. Turn by turn is quite useful if you're in a place you've never been to and probably won't return to.

But it's kind of funny... I took a 15 second gander at my child's college campus map and was able to navigate him to places he's never been to (on his own campus.) I probably should have given him a map and compass when he was a kid.

Anyway... big +1 on paper maps and compasses.

I'd say map reading isn't gone yet, but figuring out where the heck you are on the map is (and good riddance). Back before GPS, when thoroughly lost, you had to take the next intersection and find it in the road/coordinate reference listing that was hopefully on the back of the map. Often while the driver (divided responsibility: Driver and Navigator) kept driving. Also counting off distance to a possibly unmarked turn and so on.

I still read maps. Google Maps having become increasingly bloated and user hostile on Android, frequently I just pull up the OSM-based map that the Strava app displays. So handy for planning your next move when cycling in an unfamiliar area.

While the article describes maps in an artistic way, there is also one practical aspect where they still excel over GPS. It's that GPS is almost always being used in turn-by-turn mode where it translates the map into words. But words can be imprecise.

I recently had to follow a route that involved two right turns very close to each other. The second turn was inconspicuously signed and there were other roads intersecting in the same vicinity. The worded directions didn't accurately translate into a visual concept of how close the roads were and the angles at which they intersected.

The layout of that intersection, and how easy it was to miss the turn, became obvious after I stopped and looked at the map. If I had seen that before driving I would have been able to anticipate the turns. A person giving directions to another person would likely use hand gestures to draw a picture of how the roads intersect. Describing it with words alone doesn't quite do the job. But that's all a GPS can do. Even if you were to look at the map on the screen, because it highlights the intended route and fades other streets into the background, you'd still probably not notice how close the correct and incorrect streets were.

Perhaps someone could program an orienteering mode for GPS where it gives directions in precise distances and bearings. Paired with a snappy drill instructor voice.

yes, getting there, plus I remember reading people who use a GPS all the time are even losing the ability to navigate without one.

This is interesting, when I lived in London (20+ yrs ago) I had an AtoZ at home and a street map in my car. I got to know London pretty well in terms of walking around. At lunchtimes I would try and see how far I could walk in the hour and what interesting landmarks I could pass. I pretty much learnt to drive in London and would cruise around at night just because it was a cool thing to do when you'd just got a car.

When I've been back more recently, I still remember my way round for the most part but I find myself having to check myself by phone every few minutes, so it's more the confidence that I've lost. Most of the original knowledge came not from a map but just wandering aimlessly and remembering. Strangely I have a similar approach to hiking in the hills and often just wing it, although I generally have both a map and a phone app OS map in my bag.

One of the main benefits of regular maps—or even Google Maps without GPS—is the ability to simply 'learn' the directions. You read the directions to a specific place, internalize that you have to "take X road for Y kilometres, then turn onto Z side street...", and you remember it. On the way back, or next time you go, you know how to get there.

Something I've noticed because of this is that older drives—used to standard maps—know how to get somewhere without using a map; i.e., you tell someone an intersection and they instinctively know the route. For younger people, like myself, this is definitely less so the case. We don't have that same geographical familiarity. It's like a feedback loop: we use turn-by-turn GPS because we don't know the route somewhere and in turn never learn it.

I haven't used a map to find a destination in at least 15 years, and there's no doubt that paper maps can't match GPS in accuracy and convenience, but it gives me the experience of exploration and discovery.

My wife and I have a whole pile of ordnance survey maps [0] for hiking. Nothing will replace it. She was a Brownie [1] and we're doing similar stuff with our daughters (Geocaching is the big thing right now).

0. https://shop.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/maps/

1. https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/brownies/

One issue with a physical map is, that human development and advancement is so fast, that in just 3 years, roads can appear where there were none before, old ones could get torn down.

I recently told my co-workers on a Zoom call that I ALWAYS carry a paper map in the car and anytime I am backpacking or traveling in Europe. They couldn't fathom why I would bother when I have a phone that can give me directions immediately.

I guess I am old enough to know how easy it is to read a map and not need turn by turn directions to get somewhere. Also, I find that I ONLY seem to need directions when my cell service bombs out...

EDIT: Also, I just REALLY like a good map :)

We lose the necessity to learn the roads & lose the ability to read road signs.

"Keep in the right 2 lanes"

"Take the second lane from right"

Is different to

"Take the I-15 North towards Barstow"

And then there are people driving where all of the sudden their GPS tells them: in 1 mile take the exit... They have no clue how long a mile is, and they frantically try to make it from the left-most lane to the exit. Which is in half a mile.

I bought a 2023 road atlas the other day. I'll probably never use it but got it just in case GPS goes down and I need to get somewhere farther away than I usually travel. Just a backup in the event its needed. Seems like its something everyone should have tucked away somewhere. Will buy a new one every few years to keep it updated.

Maps are like script handwriting. Obsolete in practice and it's a shame. Both offer real advantages. Both are not worth the effort compared to modern tools. It makes me sad.

But, it also reminds me that I have intended to own a comprehensive atlas for backup purposes, after the apocalypse (or I break my phone). Gonna do that today.

I found myself amazed by map reading during the sailing school and sailing excercises. We were using detailed paper maps of Crotia's coastline and had an interesting practice to sail with just map (gps turmed off) during the night around Sibenik. Amazing experience

I'm sure there are fewer "map literate" people out there, but there have always been a lot of them.

There are still good uses for map reading, from hiking to video games, so it's not going to die out just because GPS exists.

A well-composed map is a thing of aesthetic beauty.

Ugh. I find these articles so annoying. Yes map reading isn't a skill most people need or want today. The goal isn't to view the map, it's to get from Point A to Point B. Understandably, some pople (nerds like us), will still love maps. But, for most it's extra-work for no payoff.

We could say the same thing about other outdated technology. "Kids today don't even bother to learn how to navigate by sextant, they're so lazy and lost". "I can't believe they don't teach how to use a loom anymore!"

Technology exists to free up mental power and to free up time to accomplish more rewarding tasks.

I could* learn how to use a loom and make my own clothes, but why would I possibly do that when I can by clothes made with slave labor for $1?

I could learn all the intricacies of using paper maps, but I have GPS/Galileo/GLONASS/NavIC/etc why would I bother? Maybe, if I were into exterme sports like backcountry-hiking (extreme when you don't hike), then it has a tangible benefit. But, I'm a lazy computer nerd and hiking directly conflicts with my laziness.

And then there's the "preppers" who say "Well what if GPS goes down!? How will you get to Taco Bell then!?" ... Okay, if things get to the point where navigation satellites go offline or become unusable, I'm probably dead, or otherwise hunkering down in place.

* But I never will.