Is driving without GPS really that uncommon?

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Notchersfireroad@reddit

I am human GPS and have been since I was a kid. That said I do use it for work at least a couple times a week.

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Same, I always know and track (in my head) what direction I am going (N/S/E/W). Other people seem to find it interesting. My dad was the same way, and so is my uncle and cousin (his son). I wonder if it’s something genetic.

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Budgiejen@reddit

Same here. I nearly always know what cardinal direction I’m facing, and where my destination is in relation to my current position. Sometimes I’m not sure the best way to get 4 miles NW if I’m unfamiliar with the area. That’s when GPS is handy.

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Entropy907@reddit

Yeah I definitely like that I can just punch a destination into a phone and go. But especially for us geography nerds, it’s kinda sad to see the ability to read a map going by the wayside.

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sjd208@reddit

My husband is like this, apparently he was able to direct his grandmother how to get home from his stroller when he was a toddler. So far my kids do not appear to be savants but my oldest who has his learners permit seems like he has a decent sense of direction. I had some young Millennials/older zoomers coworkers that couldn’t go anywhere with it but they also both had ADHD.

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twirlerina024@reddit

This checks out. I have ADHD, and when a new friend's mom was driving me home in 6th grade, she asked how to get to my house (the house I'd lived in my whole life) and I realized I had no idea. I had some vague notions, like "I know you go up the big hill by the old Wienerschnitzel", but my friend's family had just moved to the area and had no idea where the old Wienerschnitzel was. We got there eventually.

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Entropy907@reddit

Yeah it’s weird how it is. I’ve also lived my whole life in the northwestern part of the country (various places), so there’s always a giant mountain/mountain range nearby to orient yourself by. My skills might not be as good in the Midwest lol.

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ranaldo20@reddit

Same, so much that I majored in Geography and now do GIS, haha.

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TheJokersWild53@reddit

I use GPS when I’m unfamiliar with where I’m heading. But I don’t like it for short trips

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ihavenoidea81@reddit

Our GPS

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Unapologetic_Canuck@reddit

The only time I ever use gps is when I’m going somewhere unfamiliar. If I know the area and route to get there, I don’t bother.

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Budgiejen@reddit

I often go to other cities and towns. I’ll drive 90% of the way without GPS, then flip it on when I get to the unfamiliar part.

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elphaba00@reddit

A lot of times, I'll turn on GPS about halfway through a trip to get somewhere unfamiliar. I know part of the way, but I'll need help for that final bit or to find the exact address I'm looking for. Last week, I was humbled when I used the GPS to find the address of a place I needed to get to. Then I was like, "Oh, I'm good for getting back. I don't need it." I then started driving in circles because I didn't know how to get back on the interstate that would take me home. So I had to pull into a parking lot to get Google Maps going.

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Budgiejen@reddit

Some of us grew up taking Hwy 50 to 65, then turn at the RR tracks. We only need GPS if we are in a spaghetti street neighborhood

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TijayesPJs443@reddit

Xens are def the last of the best at finding our way around.

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balding_git@reddit

we memorized all the mapquest directions cuz paper and ink is expensive

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Remote-Car-5305@reddit

We had a laser printer so there were always stacks of old MapQuest directions everywhere.

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Scary-Ad9646@reddit

It would blow your mind how reliant people are on GPS.

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Usagi_Shinobi@reddit

No, it's not.

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DontBuyAHorse@reddit

I am actually a human GPS. I have an incredible sense of direction and an absolutely photographic memory for geography. People often comment on just how good it is.

That said, I run GPS all the time, especially around town. Despite my excellent sense of space, I can't know exactly what's going on with traffic, nor can I adapt my route if an accident happens somewhere ahead in my route.

I have the turn-by-turn directions turned off with "alerts only", so if traffic backs up somewhere ahead of me and there is a quicker alternative, it will just give me a little alert and I glance it my screen to see which direction it recommends. I couldn't begin to estimate that hours in my life I've saved by doing this.

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Livvylove@reddit

I use it if I'm going outside my area because traffic

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shed1@reddit

The other day, I had to get a ride home from a mechanic after dropping off my car. The mechanic was a young guy. I gave him turn by turn directions, and when we got to my house, I said, "Just pull over here, and I'll hop out."

He goes, "How did you get here without GPS?"

Umm, I live here and also I live *here.*

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ILikeBumblebees@reddit

I only recently moved away from the area I grew up in. When I lived there, I not only had an internal mental map of the entire area, but had photographic recall of pretty much every major building or landmark, and every change that happened over the course of 30 years. I'd occasionally be the character who'd give people directions like "...then make a left where the Pizza Hut hut used to be before it got torn down".

Now that I live in a new area, it's been interesting to see how long it takes me to develop a mental map of my new surroundings, and am relying on GPS more than I ever have before. I feel like following GPS directions is actually slowing down developing that second-nature familiarity with the area, because it puts my mind into a mode of doing things by rote, rather than a feedback loop of observation and decision-making. Perhaps that's where younger generations are starting out nowadays, and maybe not just with understanding their physical space, but with understanding everything.

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emily1078@reddit

I've lived in my metro area for 47 years, so I don't need GPS for 99% of my trips. That being said, I do use it regularly when driving around rush hour (to pick the route with the lightest traffic), and it was essential this summer when half the roads were under construction and I didn't want to have to research which highways are closed this weekend.

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Spartan04@reddit

GPS has some advantages even if you aren’t using it to actively navigate somewhere. I’ll sometimes check it if there’s construction going on since it can help me find routes around it. I also turn it on when on the freeway since it’ll let me know if there’s an accident so I can go another way.

That said, for most drives just around town I don’t bother with it unless I’ll be passing through an area I know there’s construction.

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Ok-Potato-4774@reddit

I regretted not checking the route home on Google Maps the other night when there was a traffic jam on my way home from work. It would've saved me about twenty minutes or more sitting in a standstill.

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ObiWan-Shinoobi@reddit

I commute about 40 minutes every day and I use gps to get me there. Can I use backroads absolutely. But I really don’t have a good idea about what traffic is doing without really analyzing the current situation and let’s face it I don’t want to. Just get me where I gotta go, fast.

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Shirkaday@reddit

Yep. I always used Waze for my 20 minute commute, so it didn’t turn into a 40 minute commute. It took me a different way (out of maybe 6 possible routes) almost every day to avoid whatever traffic there was.

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BugEquivalents@reddit

I have often ignored the GPS directing me to go a different way and had it bite me in the ass. Guess that my boomer side thinking I know best 😂

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Jdevers77@reddit

This. I used Google Maps whenever I drive anywhere more than a few miles so I can make sure there are no police, obstructions, busted ass tires in the road, etc. I know how to get where I’m going, but use the map to see who else has seen fucked up shit before me.

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Metzger4Sheriff@reddit

I use Google Maps for the speed limit. The signage around me isn't very good and having it on the screen is much easier than trying to memorize standard limits by road type/jurisdiction.

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irate_alien@reddit

seeing traffic ahead is a game changer. even if i'm not getting directions i can pick out better routes when i know the area well

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lifeuncommon@reddit

I use it all the time. It really helps to route you around road construction or traffic accidents.

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80cartoonyall@reddit

Usually just check before I leave work what the traffic looks like on Google maps to see if I need to take a different route home. On long trips I'll use Waze so I get heads-up on police, traffic and road debris.

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heartbrokebonebroke@reddit

My 13-year-old car doesn't have it, but if I peek at a map app before I go, I can usually get anywhere, especially if I've been there before. I could probably drive right to the park my high school friends hung out in that's in a city I haven't been to in over 25 years. My newer car does have it, but mostly I use it for the feature where it counts down the miles and gives you a real-time ETA for your destination.

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Recent_Permit2653@reddit

I learned not to really trust GPS when I was a truck driver.

Well, to back up, I grew up in Silicon Valley so was both surrounded by the newest tech and how fallible the new new thing could be, simultaneously. So I always approached GPS fairly cautiously.

But back to being a truck driver. I had been driving for about, maybe, two months, officially, having graduated both my CDL school with license, and my sponsor company’s in-house honing, and scoring very well in both. My company used a truck-route-specific, comparatively expensive GPS mapping system.

It took me down a single-track dirt road. I had to back a 65ft long semi probably 1/4 mile. And back onto a road. As a rookie. I learned a lot about route planning, monitoring construction closures, reconciling addresses with where a place is and calling in for a confirmation…….Trust but verify.

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ken830@reddit

You should use it all the time for traffic, road conditions, and weather. Tesla vehicles (and probably others too) automatically navigate to home or work depending on your commute pattern as well as events on your calendar so you don't even have to do anything.

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Melancholy_Rainbows@reddit

I have severe directional dyslexia. GPS is absolutely the best part of every day modern technology.

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BinocularDisparity@reddit

In my home town, I never needed it. Around my house in the suburbs, never. However, when I venture into areas of the city (I live in Atlanta), it’s always on because not being able to see traffic ahead will suck years from your life.

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intentionallybad@reddit

I don't drive anywhere without it, it tells me where cops are and if there is traffic or closed roads.

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MetaverseLiz@reddit

I got lost a TON when I was finally able to drive on my own. I am highly dependent on GPS as my navigating skills have always been terrible. As soon as Mapquest was a thing, I had stacks and stacks of paper in my car of various directions.

When I was first dating my partner, I half-joked to him that I go the opposite direction of where my brain thinks I should go because that's how bad my sense of direction is. It took him a few years, but he finally believes me. And I really do that. There is an ice cream shop near my partner's house that we've gone to for years. It never fails, but on the walk back I always want to go right when we are suppose to go left. I know to not trust my brain and go left.

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shponglespore@reddit

My dad insists on giving me detailed driving directions when I go somewhere while I'm visiting him, even though there's just one main street in his town. He can't seem to accept that if I know a place exists, I can usually find it myself, and if not, Google can get me there as well or better than he can.

It was refreshing when I visited a friend my age in a city I lived in long ago. She was just like "here's the keys to a car you can borrow while I'm at work. Bye!"

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jtmann05@reddit

I’ve lived in Seattle for 8 years and still use GPS within the city unless it’s to my regular spots

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shponglespore@reddit

15 years veteran here. Seattle is just a difficult city to navigate in, IMHO. Way too many geographical obstacles, so it's very hard to remember which streets you can take a long way and which ones stop only to restart with the same name on the other side of a hill, etc. Plus there's so much traffic, and the speed limits are so low, it really punishes you for trying to explore.

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Shirkaday@reddit

All GPS, all the time. Lazy!

If I can have the robot tell me where to go step by step, I’m gonna do it. Doesn’t mean I can’t get somewhere without it, I just choose not to.

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Slevinkellevra710@reddit

I was not blessed with a great sense of direction. I'm 46 now, and I developed it reasonably over time.
I still like to use the GPS for construction delays and stuff like that. I sometimes use it on the way to work to see if I'm going to be late or not. I use it a lot otherwise though.

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Thenadamgoes@reddit

I often use it even if I don’t need to just in case there is traffic and way around the traffic.

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Any-Jury3578@reddit

I use it if I want to know about traffic. I also use it if I am on a road trip to have a better idea of ETA. Otherwise, no, I don't use it for places where I already know how to get there.

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rialucia@reddit

If I know the area extremely well, I don’t bother. Otherwise, I use it a fair bit to get a heads up on traffic.

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Konnorwolf@reddit

Only need GPS for places I've never been too or have not been to often.

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Muffin-sangria-@reddit

I view it before going anywhere to see traffic. But daily step by step instructions? Nah.

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bridge1999@reddit

Mainly use it for traffic alerts. Lots of major road construction going on in my area lots of bridges being replaced

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Inevitable_Pride1925@reddit

I ave 44 drive almost everywhere with GPS especially places I’m not familiar with.

I was recently driving to my sisters from a direction I’m not familiar with in the dark. GPS turned a 35m trip into a 20m trip by leading me along more direct side routes, avoiding freeways, and heavy traffic. I was lost without GPS for about half the way there. But it was totally worth it to cut my drive time in half. It was much safer as well because in the dark I couldn’t always see the names of important cross streets in time to make safe turns.

I live in a major city with multiple routes to places and heavy traffic. GPS frequently saves me 5-10m in trip times for places I’m familiar with and helps me reach places I’m not familiar with.

That said early GPS was a direct contributor to an accident I was in 15 years ago. It had me go straight through an unprotected intersection across a busy thoroughfare. I couldn’t adequately see oncoming traffic due to parked cars on the side of the road. I was hit by speeding oncoming traffic, it was ruled my fault. Ordinarily I never would have taken that route. But blindly following GPS put me in a dangerous situation. GPS is much better about situations like that now. But I always keep that event in mind and avoid any similar driving situations.

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whyyoutwofour@reddit

I use it for a lot of my trips just because traffic is really bad and unpredictable in our city so it tells me what to avoid.

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majj27@reddit

I don't think I've ever used it.

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tasukiko@reddit

I've lived in our area my whole life so I know how to get places by memory of most of the street and also just by knowing what basic direction something is and winging it if needed. So I usually don't GPS anywhere that is within a 30 min radius or so around me although I may look it up first to see what it is near. But this sometimes does bit me in the butt like today. I was trying to get to my parent's house for my place and I took the route I normally would and pow an entire road was blocked for construction at a certain point. Ok, I thought, I will take a left and go down and take this other way I know, get over to the area to turn into that expressway and pow, also completely blocked for construction. Who decided to do construction on two major expressways at the same time and right next to a major holiday? Well I was fine wending my way through little side streets but it took way longer and I'm sure without GPS several people would not have been able to circumnavigation a thing like that. And if I had used GPS I probably would have been warned well before that and taken a different yet more optimized route.

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jesusmansuperpowers@reddit

I use it for cop detection even though I know where I’m going in my city 99% of the time

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mystiqueallie@reddit

I can generally navigate without GPS - I’ll look up the general area beforehand, but don’t have Maps open on my phone while driving unless I’m in a very unfamiliar area.

My father in law moved and I knew how to get there after one visit. My husband has to look up directions every time - he had zero sense of direction.

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TheDevil-YouKnow@reddit

I don't need GPS for mapping. I use it for objects in the road, accidents, construction, and speed traps. And I start off with objects in the road because that's some major fucking issue in my neck of the woods on the highway.

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UnBrewsual@reddit

I usually have it on, but more to keep an eye on traffic.

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crazycatlady331@reddit

I only use it if I'm not familiar with the area. Granted I moved two years ago so am still learning my area.

I'll definitely use it if I'm out of state.

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David_Summerset@reddit

I try not to.

Not for any reason, it's just an added distraction

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Funkopedia@reddit

I just always leave it on, cause via android auto my phone provides the music and gets charged at the same time anyway.

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No_Sir_6649@reddit

Ive told uber drivers their gps sucks and theres a better way...

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supergooduser@reddit

I'm firmly xennial (born in 78) but from 18-35 I lived in Paris and then NYC so used mass transit. Rarely drove.

I moved back to the midwest and just have this perpetual fear of getting lost. it's so easy to navigate via my phone that I do it all the time... my fear being if I miss a turn or take an exit too early it'll auto correct for me, which is just easier than pulling over and setting it up to get me back on track.

But for my like "home base" all my regular stops and stuff that are like a 5-10 minute drive no GPS.

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histprofdave@reddit

I don't know that this is just a generational thing. Some people just don't have a good sense of direction. I know some younger folks who can't go anywhere without a GPS, but my mother has always been awful with directions and frequently got lost when I was a kid (helpful for my skills in reading maps I guess). GPS would have helped her a lot... though she also hates to use it now because the phone startles her.

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Farm-Alternative@reddit

It's a skill that I know I've lost over the years. I used to have an internal map of entire areas which spanned the entire city and outer suburbs but now I drive everywhere with a GPS and I know I can barely navigate around the area anymore without it.

There have been a few big gaps living in different states or areas which helped me lose that information for my home city over time, but I primarily blame the gps.

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Boo-Boo97@reddit

I turn it on for my commute to see what traffic is doing.

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Stangboi92@reddit

I do it every day. In a 33yr old car

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Xibby@reddit

My mind is like a steel whatchamacallit.

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elkniodaphs@reddit

That's how I was raised and I turned out whatchamacallit.

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mickeltee@reddit

Im crazy bad at directions. My wife constantly makes fun of me for it. I am fine with driving around a similar 20 minutes sized city, but outside of that zone I turn it on.

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Gwendolyn-NB@reddit

Locally and generally I dont. Only time I do is if im checking traffic, and then I normally turn it off. Or going somewhere new.

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punkindle@reddit

Sometimes I hate GPS. One time, when it was snowing heavily, the GPS tried to take me on some rural route with completely unplowed roads, and if I was planning the route myself, I would have stayed on the highways that were plowed.

Another time, GPS took me through a very dangerous street in a dangerous neighborhood at night. But I had to GPS is because the main route was closed. And again... I would much rather drive an hour out of my way then take that road at night.

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jamie535535@reddit

I need it for pretty much anywhere I don’t drive semi-regularly. I have a terrible sense of direction & GPS changed my life.

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Dazzling-Astronaut88@reddit

I have a friend I go skiing with regularly in the winter. He usually drives, swings by and picks me up and then It’s a 30 minute, almost straight shot to the ski area. There are no alternative routes. He usually skies 70-100 days a season so he makes this drive a lot. Finally, I lost my shit on him for driving with the GPS on. It’s completely ridiculous. He’s drove for almost 30 years without a GPS and now he needs one to get to a place he’s easily driven to 500+ times? I only use one when I don’t know where I’m going and involves lots of navigation. Otherwise, I’m confident in my well honed skills. I mean, I delivered food without a GPS or even a cell phone. Just a paper map and a flashlight to see house numbers.

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TacticoolPeter@reddit

I mostly use it so my kids ca look at it and it will answer the age old question “Are we there yet?” That I’m going to hear ten thousand times an hour. “Just look at the stupid screen!”

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feartheswans@reddit

I obviously don't need one for places I have been before. I imagine you already knew where your uncle's house was so you wouldn't have needed it to get there.

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rjcpl@reddit

I always start up Waze but more for hazards than directions. Better than any radar detector I’ve had about warning you for speed traps.

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i_kick_hippies@reddit

I work in hospitality in a rural area where GPS doesn't work, I spend a lot of time giving people directions (The most popular destination is "somewhere I can get cell service", even though we have free wi-fi). People's faces light up when I bring out the paper map, and you should see how people react to seeing the (unworking) pay phone outside.

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TheTinman39@reddit

I use it if I haven’t been somewhere, but usually after one trip there, I am usually good to go back and/or get home. My mother can’t go anywhere without using GPS. Even places she has been to a bunch of times.

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Glittering_Rush_1451@reddit

This is me as well, I also use it for long trips for distance/time to destination

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MexicanVanilla22@reddit

I certainly know how to get to work by various routes, but I still load gps every day because it warms me about traffic. It lets you know if there are accidents ahead, construction, speed traps, dangers like debris in the roadway. I have a hot button on my phones desktop with directions to work, school, and home, so just one click loads it for me. It's worth the time it takes to set up. Using Google maps every day saves me so much time and frustration. Never going back to driving blind.

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littleyellowbike@reddit

I use mine for most drives over 15 miles just in case I need to reroute because of an accident or construction. I almost always navigate with the turn-by-turn directions muted, though, even on long road trips in unfamiliar territory (I've only ever missed my exit once because I wasn't paying attention). I also review the route before driving to see if there's anything particularly tricky or noteworthy I should be aware of.

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