Do you still keep paper road maps in your car?

[Philpug]

With the age of GPS and Google/iMap pass do you still use paper maps in your car when you travel?

 

[SShore]

absolutely. GPS's are good at providing directions (sometimes), but you just can't get a big picture of where you are or where you are going with them and they are next to useless for planning alternate routes or side trips. NEVER travel without paper maps.

 

[scott43]

Yes

 

[KingGrump]

We always have a large atlas when we are going across country. As other said, for a big picture view.
We also carry two GPS units. Just in case.

Cell receptions can be spotty on long drives.
A few years back, while driving to Mammoth from Sun Valley. Somewhere on US 6 in Nevada we saw a sign that said "No Cell Reception, No Gas, No Service for the next 167 miles."

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I think I have an old atlas given to me years ago that I've just always kept. Although I never, ever use it. I'm a paperless gal.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Yes. Technology breaks. Paper, not so much.

 

[Bill Miles]

Yes. Don't even have a smart phone/GPS.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Yes. Don't even have a smart phone/GPS.

I'll bet you have a compass.

 

[pais alto]

Oh hell yes. Most of the fun places I go have shit-to-no cell service. For that matter, most of the state I live in has shit service. And most online maps don't have all the remote forest service, BLM, or NPS roads.

That, and I just like paper maps, planning and following your route past what would be the edge of a screen.

Gazetteers rock!
https://www.librarything.com/work/1465310

 

[Mothertucker]

I'm male, therefore I need not directions, nor maps. But, @pais alto is right, Gazetteers are the best!

 

[VickiK]

Yes to keeping a map in the car, and to getting them free from the Auto Club, but I threw out the Thomas Guide a few years ago and I do use my GPS as needed.

Like some here, I like maps in general.

 

[fatbob]

The free state maps given out at interstate welcome centres I've found quite useful in the past - if somewhat amusing when they seem to imply that neighbouring states have neither roads nor towns or indeed nothing beyond a vague sense of "there be dragons".

 

[Jilly]

Yup. Just updated all of them with the new vehicle as they were getting old. Paper doesn't tell me to turn right when there is no road. Like VickiK..CAA are free.

 

[Don in Morrison]

Don't have a smart phone or GPS. I use paper maps for big-picture navigating. For detailed directions I print the Google maps zoomed-in version before leaving home.

For my work, we use a GPS for our field work. Once, it wanted us to turn right and cross a bridge that had large boulders placed at each end to prevent access. The bridge was obviously quite decrepit, and the approaches from both sides were grown up with weeds and small bushes. The bridge had clearly been unused since before the common use of GPS. We went quite some distance before the GPS gave up trying to get us to turn around and calculated a new route.

 

[Sibhusky]

I did in the old car. But truthfully, that atlas is fifteen-twenty years old now, so unlikely I'll replace it unless I'm really exploring. I am currently bringing three GPS systems with me, however... Actually four. Downloaded maps on tablet: two. Car has its own. Plus Garmin. That needs some updates, but I've got lifetime updates, so it'll happen if there's a big trip planned.

I love maps, and have a bunch of relief maps in our pool room, but it's tough to have to constantly replace them. I used to print out twenty pages of directions from DeLorme maps prior to every trip, so have slowed down the rate I kill trees. My daughter works for a mapping company, so it runs in the family.

The car's GPS is out of date and has no update available yet, so since I seem to be surrounded by roads that aren't on it, I'm using two GPS units actively when I travel. When they start arguing with each other, I can pull over and decide who I believe. So far Google Maps is winning.

 

[mdf]

I like paper maps, if I have them, for big-picture planning, but I use GPS exclusively for in-process navigation. I have had a few iffy moments, though.

Years ago my Garmin unit kept trying to take me into smaller and smaller roads, eventually dirt, in the Colorado mountains. I finally turned back when the road was too icy to continue forward progress. Fortunately I was still able to back to the previous intersection and turn around. Later I figured out that the previous time I had used the Garmin was a couple months earlier at home when I was stuck in a traffic jam and turned on "Avoid Freeways."

A couple years later, we were coming back from buying some stuff for my son's new apartment (no big-box stores allowed in Berkeley!) when the screen went white. I pulled over and realized that not only did I have no idea what road I was on, I did not even know what city I was in! That was in the early days of smartphones (my wife had one, I did not). We sat on the side of the road and figured out to download Google maps on her phone.

 

[Sibhusky]

Sometime over beer, I may get started on my experiences with Garmin in Austria a few years back. Recalculating...

 

[Doug Briggs]

GPS used to strand multiple individuals on French Gulch in Breck trying to get them to Good Times sled dog adventures. It sent them along the county roads that aren't maintained in winter, yet people will continue to drive on uncleared roads until they were up to their axles. The roads are now gated so they can't get there anymore.

 

[Eleeski]

As pilots, we were required to carry paper maps until very recently. The FAA is pretty conservative so the tech in paperless must be pretty good. But paper is still approved and still works. Even my millennial son pilot carried paper maps in the plane - but he uses the Ipad.

On my Texas backroads drivathon I researched the route beforehand on the computer and made a paper cheat sheet. I had a map stored on the laptop that I could access. And I used the phone when I had service. This technique gave me a fun tour without getting lost.

In Spain, my wife's phone GPS failed. So we had to find a paper map. Things got lost in translation - map translates into mapa - but the millennial clerk didn't understand what a paper map was until we found one. The paper map was magic - except at the roundabouts. Griswalding the roundabouts helped somewhat but we did get lost occasionally. Usually when we tried the unreliable phone's GPS.

I love the AAA paper maps but with enough time, planning and bandwidth, Google maps are as good.

Eric

 

[jmeb]

I'm a geographer by training and profession. I love maps. But no, I don't keep many paper maps in the car.

I prep extensively for road trips and camping adventures. Occasionally I will print off a MVUM if necessary. But more often than not, a few minutes of prep work downloading offline google maps, and relevant NF topo sheets with an app like Avenza is more than enough. I carry multiple charging solutions (car, a van "house" battery, and a mobile charger). I know "technology can break." I also have a Garmin for use in emergency situations and certain back country travel adventures. But really, I lose paper maps or destroy them on accident far more often than my iPhone has "broken".

I would bet this depends a lot on:
- How much you prep before you go out / loose cell phone signal. If you're going to be wandering off the grid for many days in a row across huge areas then paper maps > downloaded.
- How much you prefer one medium to the other.

I would expect the later is highly age-dependent rather than the objective goodness of one platform vs the other.

For reference my use cases are: a half dozen road trips to ski areas every year, a big summer week-long road trip around the west, and another 15-18 long weekend camping trips that include extensive travel on forest service roads in various states of repair.