To wonder how people found unfamiliar places before Sat Navs

[Eastie77Returns]

Obviously IABU as I’m in my mid 40s and didn’t use a Sat Nav when I started driving but I can’t remember how I managed!

Things that puzzle me…if you were driving to another city, clearly maps and signs on the motorway would be used. But once you arrived in the city and then had to get to a specific address (not a well known attraction that would be clearly sign posted), how would you find it if you didn’t have a detailed map like an A to Z of the city. Presumably people wouldn’t go to the expense of buying those kinds of maps every time they visited an unfamiliar city. And yes you can stop and ask people but how would that have worked in large cities where a passerby is very unlikely to know how to get to 23 Random Street which could be anywhere from close to the city centre to miles away in the suburbs.

I had too much coffee today and can’t sleep so I’m awake ruminating over the little things in life that puzzle me😂

I mean no offence when I say this. Your post just shows how many people seem to lose the ability to navigate due to sat navs. In time gone by, we would of used local landmarks as a guide to which direction to head.

An example in your case looking at the map would be you know that regents park sits between Camden and Soho. So if the local streets are pointing that way to Regent Park you know your heading that direction. From Regent Park, you would see signs for Camden, Hampstead Heath then Highgate.

Love this!

And may I add "we're right under the staple. I'll tell you when we're out"

I was born in the 1950's. I can well remember going on holiday with my parents and sister back in the day when my Dad first got a car. My mum was the map reader but wasn't very good at it and always got us lost! Dad used to get us kids to look out for road signs for the next town on the route - no motorways in those days.

My cousin asked his dad to send him directions of a long journey through a European country. Rather than sending a link to the journey on Google maps (which is what he expected), my cousin received a video of my uncle sat at the table with a map open, pencil in hand, tracing the route with its tip. Full commentary, which roads to avoid, useful shortcuts and tips for lunch. Fabulous.

Me too. This thread is inspiring me to ditch gps.

I used to write it on a post it and stick it to the dashboard.

M6 to J5
A1234 to 3rd roundabout
Left
Past petrol station
Third right
Past red house on left

🤷🏽‍♀️🤣

I had a nice AA book that had UK map pages and then a second section with town plans of all major towns and cities. 😅

I'm not sure the town centre plans were great however. 😬

My A to Z of Edinburgh and the Lothians was dog eared AF though, as it got a lot of use.

But yeah if we were visiting someone we'd have directions, I agree.

I didn't find my way. I got lost over and over and over.

Eventually, with great effort over many months I can learn how to navigate a small section of town if I do so repeatedly over at least 6 months, I do so by visual recognition of the area.

Before sat navs if going somewhere new I had to ask my husband to drive me there a couple of days previously while I watched carefully and wrote down lefts, rights and visual landmarks.

I experience topographical disorientation, which acts as a disability when navigating. When walking I could stop and ask people repeatedly or on public transport ask the driver or others.

I can find where I am on a paper map and I can find my destination. I cannot match one to the other.

When driving the anxiety was dreadful. If I am new to an area I will ALWAYS without exception get lost. I get lost in buildings with lots of corridors and streets which look similar regularly and can absolutely never tell you what direction I'm facing in. Go north may as well be Go flibble flobble.

Some experience topographical disorientation so badly they literally get lost leaving their own street.

There's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. It's a cognitive disability and it cannot be fixed no matter how many times someone says "but if you just..."

It wasn't caused by anything. I've always experienced it.

It can't be overcome, but as with many disabilities there are work arounds including sat navs.

So the answer is, I got lost, I didn't go, or I asked someone to take me.

Sat navs made it possible for me to drive to new areas without always getting lost, stressed and often giving up and just trying to return home.

Yep, all done by snail mail - father did it in the 60s.

When I first moved to London I lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb. I travelled by motorbike. My housemate claimed he knew London well

He didn't, he knew the tube map well. To get to Golders Green he would walk to East Finchley tube station get the Northern line down to Camden and then the other end to Golders Green.

I either went by bike or on the bus that took about 10 mins.

Some of my fondest memories are taking a wrong turn and getting lost in the car with my mum.
We'd usually stop at a shop if we could find one, and she'd buy me a choc dip to keep me quiet while she broke out the highlighter to find a new route on the AtoZ 😁

To clarify, at the time of the bombings I did not use sat navs (I was not a driver at the time). I frequently walked around many parts of London and knew my way quite comfortably in those specific areas but I did not know the area around Soho particuarly well. I was a couple of weeks into a new job and house share and just didn't know the exact route I had to walk for one part what turned out to be a 2 hour walk. I eventually worked it out via the signs.

It's really not uncommon for Londoner's to need a bit of time to puzzle out how to get from A to B when in an unfamiliar part of the city especially if you are from one side of the river and find yourself on the other side. I don't think sat navs are to blame for that specifically.

I tended to find that wherever we were going it was always 'in the crack'.

@Eastie77Returns

Perhaps it is more as sassh says and that Londoners know the tube map inside out due to the high level of public transport, but not the actual geography of the area.

I don't use Satnav now, I use maps and roadsigns, and my own geographic knowledge.

The only time I use Google maps is if I am trying to find a particular street, so it will be once I get within a mile or so of my destination, or if I think I have gone wrong. It can be helpful with one way systems.

I like looking at maps for fun - I can spend hours looking at Open Street Map or the Side by Side app that the National Library of Scotland has where you can compare an area now with how it was in say 1930.

Road map books. 🙂

Yes I sometimes do this, and I have also emailed a friend instructions like this. They had Google maps, but were reassured by having the backup of my instructions. I think they had built-in satnav in the car as well, so triply secure :)

I was a rep for a year or so in the late 70s. I used to cover when other reps were absent, so I could be asked to go and work anywhere in the south of the UK, including south Wales.

I used to work out the route to the town I needed from a UK road atlas, and then buy a street map from a stationer or newsagent when I got to the outskirts for finding the addresses I needed to get to.
^^

We try to remember to check the route in one of the apps before going almost anywhere - there have been a lot of roadworks, and also there can be problems on the motorway which foul it up but often also other routes.

Unfortunately my job back in the nineties usually involved visiting houses that didn’t seem to appear on street maps etc 🙈 I was a rural home care assistant ..

the day i passed my driving test in 1990, I bought a road atlas and an A to Z on my way work afterwards. That is how my colleagues knew i had passed.
I once navigated my way right across Birmingham using directions written on post it notes stuck along the dashboard, ripping them off as I passed each junction. I didnt get lost.

So the answer is - some got lost a lot, got help or just didn't go.

Would love to be able to drive around without a sat nav. But I can't.