When I first learned to drive, I always relied on checking a map prior to leaving so that I knew where to go and kept a map or map book (Thomas Guide) in my car in case I got lost. When MapQuest (remember that?) came to be, I replaced checking the map with printing out the directions to my desintation. For longer trips, I went to AAA and got a TripTik travel planner which was really neat at the time.

With the discontinution of selective availablity, commercial and consumer GPS started to become useful. Prior to this time, the innaccuracies of GPS made it more of a toy for consumers. I played with a number of units prior to this change and ran some mapping software (StreetPilot) on a laptop that was a novelty that it showed my general location, but wasn’t useful enough for turn by turn navigation.

When Garmin released the iQue 3600, the company I was working for at the time, purchased one for me so that we could get it working with our software. This was my first dipping my toe in the water of turn by turn navigation. Looking online, this appears to have been in the latter part of 2003. I was so impressed with the setup that I purchased one for myself and used it all the time. The only downside (and downside of PalmOS devices at that time) was that it didn’t have primary flash storage (the maps did reside on a flash card) so that when the battery died, the device had to be re-synced.

I’m not sure at what point I stopped printing out MapQuest directions and looking at a map before trips, but I was thinking about this last weekend. Last weekend I was at a Scout event at a local Scout camp and before I left the camp, someone picking up their Scout said that the highway was blocked both ways on the path home. I said no problem, I’ll just navigate using my phone like I always do (I do like being able to download offline maps just in case I don’t have cell overage).

The path home was one that I had never taken before in the 7 years that I’d been going to this camp. However, I didn’t think twice about taking the route and just followed along. I had never been in most of the areas it took me, but I never stopped to look at a map (I don’t carry physical maps in my car). I made it home safely and in the amount of time it had estimated for the journey.

Should I check maps before I leave for a trip? Should I carry physical maps in my car? Am I asking for trouble relying on mapping software? These are all good questions and I guess I’ve resigned myself to taking precautions such as downloading offline maps, having a power source to power my phone, and having a general idea of where I go before I leave.

I’m going to have to say that mapping software and GPS have, in general, made my life easier as they generally provide good estimates for arriving (leaving me with less down time as I like arriving early and before mapping software, I would arrive way early), reduce stress of having to look at a map while driving or remembering the turns, and if I make a wrong turn, the software re-routes me without having to take my eyes off the road or stop.