Favorite road atlas

scooperhsd

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Location
Kansas City KS
TDI
NB, 2000, RED(5 Speed conversion) 2015 Golf SE
Garmin, followed by Rand McNally. We update the Garmins regularly (3-4 times / year - every 3-4 months) and buy a new Rand McNally every other year.
 

Demo3

Veteran Member
Joined
May 19, 2013
Location
Longmont CO
TDI
2015 TDI Golf Sportwagen
I love maps but now use the Garmin. Between 2000 and 2010 I drove all over North Georgia taking service calls and knew were all the pay phones were. We had pagers then of course but we also did not have all those robo calls.
 

tadawson

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2013
Location
Lewisville, TX
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL, 2015 Passat TDI SEL
It kind of depends . . . I find an Atlas the best for planning, since it's so much easier to get 'te big view', but would have a hard time without the ability ofma gps to route around traffic issues realtime.
 

Ton

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Location
Free Union,VA
TDI
early 2001 jetta
I can understand the traffic issue. But I think there's a generation coming that won't hardly know how to read a map.
 

wrenchtech

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2018
Location
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin USA
TDI
2005 Golf TDI
I was a long-haul trucker 20 years ago. I had boxes is full of maps and I have always been a fan of the spiral ring bound Rand McNally Motor Carriers Atlas, but I was an early adopter of digital map technologies. Before GPS became widely available I had an atlas on CD from Delorme that I used with my laptop. That was a real game changer. But I have never given up on maps. As Ton says, there is nothing better for getting the big picture. Google maps is good for that, but I still get a new motor carrier Atlas every five years or so (this refers to maps for North America only).
 

Jetta_Pilot

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 14, 2005
Location
West Hill, Ont.
TDI
2015 Passat Highline TDI Candy White (SEL Premium) long gone 2002 Jetta TDI
Well to add this, if you own a Garmin GPS, not only do you get 3 map updates per year but you can also install "BaseCamp" on your computer.
Using BC you can set up your routes, stops etc and see " the whole picture ".
Actually if your Garmin has all of North America then it includes Canada and Mexico, it also includes Alaska and Hawaii in detail. You can see all of the North American continent and can zoom into wherever you choose to. Almost every town or city has street maps in detail.
There is nothing like seeing exactly where your vehicle is at any given point in time using the GPS. No paper map of any flavour can do that !
 

wrenchtech

Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2018
Location
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin USA
TDI
2005 Golf TDI
There is nothing like seeing exactly where your vehicle is at any given point in time using the GPS. No paper map of any flavour can do that !

I am slowly warming up to GPS, but before GPS I felt pretty confident that I knew my position at any given time because I can look at the terrain and significant landmarks and relate that to what I am seeing on the map.

I once worked in event marketing. I was part of a traveling crew that put on events in a different town every few days. My contacts at headquarters were mostly young college graduates who were trying to get their start in marketing. We needed to communicate about the logistics of the tour every day I could tell by their remarks and their expectations, with regard to where we were and how long it would take us to get to the next location, they had no idea of true nature of the geography involved. For these folks a GPS helps them to get where they need to go, but prevents them from ever gaining a sense of the big picture.
 
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