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 did a lot of interrailing in the early 80s. As soon as you arrived on the train you went straight to buy a map of that city eg Athens. Then someone had that map open all the time so we found our way. Sometimes l really miss a map as you can get a better picture of what's in the wider area and where you actually are in relation to the whole. Always mean to havecone in the car but keep forgetting to buy one.

Maps, A to Z books, written notes, you made much more effort to get directions from the destination in advance. Road atlas lived permanently in the car.

In my case I am hopeless at navigating and driving simultaneously, so I was always going the wring way.

Roads were just as complicated.

Yes, roads were certainly just as complicated pre-sat nav. And in fact, if you go back a couple of decades more, they were waaaay more complicated. Before the motorway network became extensive, most long-distance journeys involved travelling through numerous towns, I mean right through their centres.

As a child, whenever we went to extended family get-togethers the first half hour or so of conversations were the menfolk discussing which routes they took, with great seriousness.

Route talk was the equivalent of weather talk, a smalltalk go-to between people who were perhaps feeling a bit shy until the get-together warmed up. But it all seemed so important and manly to me

I used study the AtoZ and write out simple directions on a piece of paper and pin it to my dash where I could see it.

It'd say like:

North in M6
Exit 7 on to A18
Exit 4 for BoodyRuffleTon
Right onto SheepDip Road
Left onto Quagmire Lane
Find No34

That'd get me petty much where I needed to be.

Though I did get lost once in Milton Keynes, their road names are weird.
Nice place though, still here.. it's been 14 years.. I'll never get this pizza to Northampton at this rate. 🤪

I only started using Google Maps a couple of years ago, so writing down the headlines of an AA generated route is still very familiar to me. In fact I very often still do it, given the frequency with which Google Maps goes a bit weird.

Maps........

1. Write out the directions
2. Study the map ideally several times before you go so you have an idea of what the place is like on the ground
3. Off you go

When the AA autoroute first started it was a CD that you put into your computer.

I don't have sat nav in my car so I use a map

All of the above but I still wonder how I managed and didn't have more navigation disasters than I did!

Late 90s I was a locum and got sent here there and everywhere all over the West Midlands, no idea how I survived tbh

I smiled when I got asked directions by a car passenger the other day. First time in years!

I used to love looking up directions in the big A-Z map books 😍😍😍

I love an AA Autoroute, and still prefer something that to satnav (which I find difficult to use). In fact, I still plot routes like that, rather than relying on satnav.

I had a job where I had to go to meetings at about 8/10 houses everyday.
Had map books for each county. If no luck, would stop at an estate agent or florist.
I was blessed with a good sense of direction and a decent memory though

You used to be able to buy books of maps for all towns and cities in an area - my dad had to do medical home visits and had one, I used to sit in the passenger seat and find the next street for him. It wasn’t easy sometimes!

I am old enough to remember driving without sat navs very well. As mentioned A- Z of local areas were regularly bought in petrol stations if needed . Big A3 book of road maps in boot.

Prepping for big ne journeys the night before and writing lists of road with basic instructions like
A45 to xx , then B3455 to xxx and put on passenger seat to refer to while driving ( not much better than looking at phone tbh)

My sense of direction and my memory for routes I have travelled before was and still is TERRIBLE though so I got lost A LOT

I love sat navs. They have made my poor geographically challenged life much better. Many fewer stops to make frantic calls from phones (pay ones then) to ask for directions. Less wondering in completely the opposite direction and being hours late

Maps are not really that complicated. We still use ours and OS maps for walks.

Big motoring atlas, plus things called County Red Books. I had them for all over as they were fairly cheap. I also used to write the route in large letters on cards and hang them on the dashboard! Occasionally I'd get lost, have to pull over and work out where the hell I was, and try to get back on track. Pretty stressful and I don't miss it at all, but it does mean my mapreading skills are decent.

I had an AA map in the car. If I was going somewhere new and needed a more detailed map I'd go onto AA autoroute and print off pages of A4 maps that were zoomed in! I'm late 40's but didn't start driving long distances until late 20's so at least had access to the (dial-up!) internet!

For me that used to be part of the fun of a day out or going to a gig further afield! Planning out routes and printing stuff off, trying to find parking before even leaving etc!

AA route finder website and a print out, with strategically placed post-its on my dashboard with each significant direction on.

Before the internet, road atlas to get to main town and then written directions from the motorway etc (provided by the host / hotel / tourist attraction etc).

I used to love navigating with the road atlas. I always have one in the car. I’d write a note of major junctions for long journeys.

I think using the sat nav all the time make you less observant regarding road signs and directions.

We still have our big road map. You never know!

I also remember when my sister moved away she wrote out directions to her house on index cards. She was sat in the passenger seat while her DP drove and she wrote it all down as she went. Then posted them to me! Still spent an hour lost, driving round backroads! 😂

I will admit that nowadays I feel mild panic if I don't have waze on my car screen.

@dudsville but the map (still in my car) is a European road atlas 2009 - they have built roads since! Perhaps time for a new one