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😂

Maps and asking people for directions.

My dad was in sales in the 1970s, he always asked people for their nearest pub and directions from there. If he had to ask someone they might not know random street but they would know the local puns.

I used to write a list that went like this

M6 south
J 40 sign to X

And this was Sellotaped to my dash board.

If I got lost I would either ask someone or I would head for the station (if there was one) as there are usually phone, cabs and often a map.

Then I could either phone the person I was visiting and ask for directions from the station or give a cab driver some cash to drive there and me follow behind.

Maps
AA route finder was great. I'd print it off and stick a summary to a post it note on the steering wheel like a pp
Asking
Directions given by the person you were visiting.

I DID find it panic inducing! I thought I hated driving until I got a satnav and it turned out that 90% of my hatred was actually worrying about directions.

Oh, DH says you used to be able to write to the AA if you were going on a driving holiday and they'd send you back all the instructions on directions and things. Apparently they had people whose job it was to do that.

I read an article about how to keep your brain skills up and two of the suggestions were stop using a to-do list and stop using sat nav! Apparently it is very much a case of use it or lose it.

Does anyone else ever have anxiety inducing dreams where they’re lost in a city? I had one just last night where I was on a bus and it was going an unfamiliar way and I had no idea how I would get to where I wanted to be!
I bet no youngsters ever have these dreams 😁

People used to ask directions a lot too. I was stopped by passing drivers frequently as a teen, and thinking it over I can't actually remember it happening once in the last twenty years.

I was an excellent navigator btw. Precise enough for my .... explorer dad, who'd decide to go a different way on a whim, fling the A2Z at me and tell me to find him a route home (mum would cry if she was navigating), and combining it with calming therapy for mum whenever we hit diversions and roadworks!

Lost skills.

@Biggirlnow I worked for the AA in 2000ish and it was a department! You could include requirements like no left turns, and the funniest requests got passed around the company for a laugh.

we go all around the place to gigs and before satnav we would first look on a road atlas how to get there, and write brief instructions.
Then we'd have a city street map of the area, work out where we'd be getting in the town, and how to get to the venue/nearest parking spot. One would drive, the other would navigate.

If ever going alone, i use to make a route card with instructions and tape where i could easily read it. (used to be in the Army so something i was well acquainted with)

we had loads and loads of maps of all different towns/cities. It was a lot of fun.

We used to print off AA autoroute. I used to buy an a-z for places I'd spend alot of time in. I had quite a few.

My dd has just completed her D of E and map reading skills were a revelation to her and all her friends. Whereas I remember going on holidays and my parents arguing and the big map being given to my sister and I to work out😁

I am mid 40s and my first ten years of driving was spent getting very lost, pulling over and looking at maps. It took me and a friend about 3 hours to do a 40 minute journey once. Having said that, it made you take note of road names etc rather than just blindly following Google maps. I do still get lost now but I get into less of a panic.

This is making me feel so old. I was in my late 20s when it became available.

As kids my mum would not fly so we drove everywhere, including to France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy.

My dad was the only driver so we all learned to navigate quite well.

What I always remember about the day of the London tube bombings was, as well as the sound of feet on pavements because there was so little traffic, people starting to walk home and going into newsagents to buy A-Zs, because if you usually just hopped on the tube to Wood Green from your workplace in Kings Cross, you wouldn’t necessarily know how to get there on foot, and smartphones were less ubiquitous.

I moved to London from Ireland in my early twenties it was the early noughties. My job meant I was driving around London and South east a lot. I used to get route on AA route planner. Print it out in large type and have it on the passenger seat. The A to Z was also my Bible, never left home without it.
As child I remember loads of maps in the car and my dad constantly stopping asking for directions or fighting with my mum on whether to stop and ask for directions

I had these car maps that were pretty detailed, I’d plan the route out and then put a few details in a post-it in the dash for long trips.

I drove myself to a singles activity holidays in my early 20’s that was in rural Wales. 3.5hr drive.

I had things like M5 junction x and Axxx to Leominster or whatever to help me. Then for the actual accommodation there were instructions like Left at the pub, right after 2 miles etc

It took some effort!

My favourite people to ask for directions from were posties and lollipop ladies.
I had a postie in my car on more than one occasion!

I'd sort my directions before leaving. Before getting to an unfamiliar, confusing road network I'd stop & check again. Still got into trouble with using correct lanes etc. but managed. It's far busier now, though.

Tbh sat nav isn't the bomb. We were on holiday last week & even though we'd gone the same route several times, DH missed a turn because he was relying on maps & it was telling him to use the right lane... it meant AFTER the turn, but he doesn't pay attention. I had to navigate the ol' fashioned way because I was paying attention. I've lost count of how often he's followed maps on familiar routes & we've ended up in bf nowhere, once on a goat track on the side of a mountain!

Map book of the city. Still prefer the old fashioned way to sat nav. I check the route before hand, imprint it on my brain and off I toddle!
Some maps aren't to scale though, and that adds a whole new dimension to trying to find somewhere.....looking at you map of Kuala Lumpur!!

That's right, it was everyone's job to keep a look out and find the street names/landmark! Everyone was invested as we wanted the journey to end! It's truly amazing how far technology has advanced. These young adults today have no idea!

When walking, I’ve been known to ask a parked London taxi driver! 100% recommended!

I miss the days of directions. It was a slam dunk test of a persons level of engagement with processing (i.e. intelligence).

90% of directions to anywhere can be given in about 5-6 lines plus an atlas. If someone uses more, it's a warning they probably don't think clearly. Or so a family friend with military experience held.

As soon as someone starts telling the 27 landmarks on a straight road, you know to add quite a bit to your journey.

Let's not talk about people who ended up in Hayes, Kent once, missing the show in Hayes, Hillingdon.

I was an on the road sales rep before sat nav was a thing. I had a box full of A to Z for my area in the back of my car and to be honest it wasn't unusual for me to be driving with one open on my knee.
My new company car I had just before I went on mat leave actually had sat nav on it but I never got to use it for work and when I didn't go back there was apparently a real bun fight over who got it as it was the only one that had it

I used a map and then relied on directions when you're nearby...turn left at the Red Lion, keep going past the petrol station, left again at the Spotted Duck, keep to the right when the road splits into one way...

It was always signposted with pubs!

I got lost in Reading 20yrs ago with no map and no satnav. I still remember the guy in the petrol station who gave me perfect directions to the Travelodge I was staying in. I was on the edge of sobbing with frustration, but, pub directions got me there. Thank you petrol station guy, I've never forgotten you!

Easy!! You just had to do it in order : motorways> A roads> B roads > C roads. D roads would need more local knowledge and an A-Z

Towns and cities all tend to be built in a similar layout, especially since the advent of out of town retail parks.

i used to live following routes on a map or playing the ‘what roads would you take to travel from Colchester to Barnstaple’ or other random towns and cities.

Used an a to z map. You had to accept that you might get lost and it could take longer. Asking for directions was also a thing.

I was going to ask that. When you ask for directions and the person offers to get in to your car.

I've done the getting in the car with someone, I knew exactly where she needed to be but there was a complicated one way system so it was easier to get in and say, "left here" etc.

I’ve never used satnav and generally get to my destination easily by:

• using a road atlas to check the whole route beforehand and memorising or jotting down main turnoffs, motorway junctions etc.
• using detailed city maps in the atlas, or use online maps in the same way to see where I should go once there (this and the previous step don’t take long at all)
• if I get lost, I ask in a shop or someone on the street, or look on a map on my phone

Ironically, my car has built in satnav, but I find it distracting and fiddly to use. I also like to see the “bigger picture” of my journey in my head - but I love maps and have a good visual memory.

I can see that satnav is a huge benefit for people who have to drive to different places for a living, though.