To hate it when people give crap directions and then get angry when you ask them to be more specific?

[MaddyHatter]

DH was just trying to explain something to me about where they're planning some roadworks in town.

When i direct people, i will use buildings they drive past, names of roads and landmarks..

So for instance "you come off at j5 of Mxx, get off the 3rd exit and drive past X hotel on your left until you reach the island by the cinema, go right, 3rd exit towards the retail park....etc

he describes it like "you come that road, go all the way around to the right and head up there, you know where i mean right, where the road splits in two?" while making hand gestures... so when i give him a blank look, he somehow makes out i'm stupid for not being able to follow him.

He's not the only one who gives directions like this and gets annoyed when i ask for names of roads or some kind of landmarks to reference it to.. he could be driving around the fucking magic roundabout for all i know.

I'm not being unreasonable to be pissed off they make out i'm stupid for not understanding am i?

[StealthPolarBear]

I love maps, hate directions.
"Go up to the top of the road past the bungalows and then turn right at the church"
I tend to find I've misidentified the bungalows and then the church I turned at was a chapel etc etc. Much prefer your way. Or a map or sat nav.

[ANiceSliceOfCake]

My friend laughed when I used my sat nav to direct me from Manchester to Wales, she just said 'it's just one big long road then you turn left' errrrr ok, thanks for that.

[StealthPolarBear]

Turn left? ? Right surely, into Wales?

[LucyLot]

YANBU I've had:

"Where are you?"
"Oxford Street"
"Me too, walk up the street and I'll bump into you."

[EastMidsMummy]

Yeah, the "top end" of the road. Helpful.

[Queenbean]

I hate directions. Much prefer maps.

[CremeEggThief]

I never ask for or give directions if possible. As a non-driver, when asked for directionsby a driver, it never works. One of my friends used to give directions by counting traffic lights, e.g. you go through sets of traffic lights, then turn left, etc.

[NotCitrus]

Worst is when you ask for directions, you get given what look like good ones, they say it'll be 5 minutes max, and eventually you realise they assumed 5 minutes driving...
Not what I needed when one hospital had to cancel my appt but I could go to another nearby.

Though the time MrNC and I ended up walking for an hour in the hills near Lake Garda but eventually found the stunning restaurant we'd been pointed at was well worth every moment. Though drunkenly stumbling downhill for an hour after in the dark was a bit tricky.

[StealthPolarBear]

Oh yes top end vs bottom end
or "head towards the leisure centre" - I don't know where that is either
and the best
"You can't miss it"
Can, and probably will

[redexpat]

Oh i quite like a landmark or 2, but they do have to be specific, so right at the kings head rather than right at the pub.

[WhooooAmI24601]

I hate giving people directions because while I can see it perfectly in my head, my directions come out like a drunk monkey's directions, with lots of gestures and nodding and "you know, that bus stop where the lady with the lovely pink coat sits". DH goes nuts if I try and give directions. So YAB a little U to assume everyone can do as you do.

[ShutTheFuckUpBarbara]

As someone who has relocated a lot, I get a bit peeved when someone who knows you're new to the area gives you shit directions like:

"when you get to the funny looking crossroads, the one where that pub burnt down years ago, take the 2nd exit towards the old football ground " . This was after I rang them up saying" I'm new here and don't know the area very well, can you give me directions to your house please? "

I also for a while worked in a very rural area and occasionally had to find remote farms. The directions usually involved counting cattle grids

[ratspeaker]

I was helping DD move to her new flat, driving her possesions in my van
Her directions were " follow the inner circle route"
It took me a wee moment to figure it was an underground railway system!

[StealthPolarBear]

Oh yes the pub that burnt down. And you're meant to recognise it by the gap.

" "you know, that bus stop where the lady with the lovely pink coat sits".
:o my dad used to have guide books to take us on country walks. After a particularly vague set of directions it became know as the "turn left at the sheep" book

[PikachuBoo]

I was visting a place for the first time the other week. I asked for directions to a certain part of the HUGE building. The receptionist's instructions included 'by the kitchen' and 'you know'. I replied by saying I didn't know and that's why I was asking.

[VioletBam]

God YANBU! My DH does this and I've heard other men do it so I think it's a male thing.

I had a row with DH about this the other day! I said "I need you to say road names and mention landmarks!" and he was all confused and annoyed at me!

[MrsMook]

I've not started many of my own AIBUs, but I did start one along the lines of "AIBU to think that most people are crap at directions" after a fairly traumatic hour circling around the next neighbourhood in search of a school. I stopped about 5 times at various shops, health clinics, bus tops etc and very few people had a clue about where the school was, and nobody identified the fairly cruicial facts that a) The school is a mile away from the church it is named after, and b) the church that is is near is a little methodist chapel now converted to housing. Much of the neighbourhood was built as council estate, so the architecture is monotonous, and the roads loop in obscure directions.

Worst is communal directions when several people chip in to contribute to confuse things further!

I should have saved time by aborting mission, going home, finding my phone and googling.

The second time I had to take DS there he was somewhat nervous abou repeating the experience. I got him there directly within 10 minutes of leaving the house.

I have resolved to get my phone and Google maps out when people stop me in the street to make it as clear as possible for them (my neighbourhood is an undistinctive labyrinth too).

[nonline]

My OH is a good navigator but never knows road names or seem to notice shops etc. and gets really irritated when I refer to one.

I remember reading something about how men and women recall routes differently - women more likely to refer to landmarks/buildings was one thing.