Driving directions!! What is wrong with people!!

[promise5 17]

Why do people need to complicate driving instructions ??!!
Don't tell me to take this highway to that highway to that road.
I don't have time for that. Speak sense.
For instance : take the highway past the Fred Meyer gas station heading up baileys hill going out of town follow it till you see the turn for independence mine and hatchets pass. Turn there. If you follow that all the way through your going to end up on the other side of Wasilla. No biggie. Follow the highway back past the sports complex, spenards, and 3 bears.
If you turn the other way your headed to Fairbanks, long trip and can get boring. You sooooo don't want to go there more then once.

That makes much more sense when giving directions.

No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

[ryoder 1,590]

You AK people have neither smartphones, nor GPS receivers?

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[muff528 3]

Take this here road a few miles. Turn left about a mile and a half before you get to the tracks. After a while you'll see a field where the old barn used to be. Take another left right there and after about 3 miles, you'll see some kids playing kickball. Ask one of them.

[JerryBaumchen 1,348]

Hi 5,

Quote

That makes much more sense . . .

You ask for a lot.

The one that always gets me is: 'You can't miss it.'



Jerry Baumchen

[quade 4]

There are several schools of thought about directions; landmarks, pathing, GPS coordinates . . . ALL have their uses.

You seem to dislike pathing and prefer landmarks. Okay, but landmarks can change in a heartbeat and weather can make them difficult to see.

Your best bet is to be fluent in more than one so you can cross check and verify.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[RMK 3]

Getting directions, with landmarks, in rural America always seemed to both include landmarks that no longer exist (“take a right after where the old Dairy Queen used to be”) and also landmarks that are not required for your journey (“if you pass the Piggly Wiggly you’ve gone too far”).

My bane in rural England is that the signage is all about location names instead of cardinal directions (there is some odd assumption that everyone in England knows the name of every little half-ass village) – you just need to know which way is east or west, but the damn signs just show directions with meaningless names like “Whipple Village” or “Lower Scrumpton”.

"Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

[MelStowe 0]

I once gave someone directions to the DZ through the back roads that included "turn right when you get to the house with the chickens in the yard". He doubted the usefulness of this landmark and instruction. But later on, he told it was right on! (Mostly, because there were very few houses in that area, but only one of which had chickens...)

[jcd11235 0]

quade

There are several schools of thought about directions; landmarks, pathing, GPS coordinates . . . ALL have their uses.

You seem to dislike pathing and prefer landmarks. Okay, but landmarks can change in a heartbeat and weather can make them difficult to see.

Your best bet is to be fluent in more than one so you can cross check and verify.

Agreed. People process information in different ways.

I personally prefer using road names, direction in which to turn, and approximate distances (much as the Google map site might provide). Landmarks are okay for supplemental information, but I don't find them very useful as primary identifiers. (I think my preference is what Quade refers to as "pathing.")

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[billvon 2,939]

Quote

take the highway past the Fred Meyer gas station heading up baileys hill going out of town follow it till you see the turn for independence mine and hatchets pass. Turn there. If you follow that all the way through your going to end up on the other side of Wasilla. No biggie. Follow the highway back past the sports complex, spenards, and 3 bears.
If you turn the other way your headed to Fairbanks, long trip and can get boring.

A lot of my conversations about directions go something like this:

Me: OK so what's the address?
Other person: So take the highway past the Dairy Barn and turn up Sandy Hill Road . . . .
Me: I really just need the address. I can . .
Other person: It's tricky. You have to turn towards Syosset but the sign says . . .
Me: How about the address?
Other person: Well, you can go the other way but . . . .

Eventually I just let them finish. Then I ask them something like "hey, I also have to mail a letter to them, what address should I put on the envelope?"

[mrubin 0]

billvon

Quote

take the highway past the Fred Meyer gas station heading up baileys hill going out of town follow it till you see the turn for independence mine and hatchets pass. Turn there. If you follow that all the way through your going to end up on the other side of Wasilla. No biggie. Follow the highway back past the sports complex, spenards, and 3 bears.
If you turn the other way your headed to Fairbanks, long trip and can get boring.

A lot of my conversations about directions go something like this:

Me: OK so what's the address?
Other person: So take the highway past the Dairy Barn and turn up Sandy Hill Road . . . .
Me: I really just need the address. I can . .
Other person: It's tricky. You have to turn towards Syosset but the sign says . . .
Me: How about the address?
Other person: Well, you can go the other way but . . . .

Eventually I just let them finish. Then I ask them something like "hey, I also have to mail a letter to them, what address should I put on the envelope?"

billvon getting directions

Personally, I'd rather use my gps or get street names and directions. Landmarks can work but they are too likely to change or be too vague.

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

[skyjames 2]

Replying to thread, no one in particular.

I was visiting a friends family in southern USA.

I asked for some directions but no one knew them ... what they did know was not to ask Carl for directions. They told me this. They didn't tell me who Carl was, apparently he had not arrived yet.

Later I was standing by the barbecue pit, I ask the guy poking at the meat for the same directions. Honest, I didn't know he was Carl.

Anyway, good thing I didn't ask what time it was, I really didn't need to know how to build a clock.

"exit fast, fly smooth, dock soft and smile"
'nother james

[jcd11235 0]

mrubin

billvon getting directions

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who remembered that.

Math tutoring available. Only $6! per hour! First lesson: Factorials!

[quade 4]

BTW, there's another system of coordinates besides Lat/Long GPS I really like for a couple of reasons called "what3words".

Not that it solves every problem, but it's a pretty neat idea because (as long as you have the technology to look it up) it's way easier to remember than Lat/Long.

http://what3words.com

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[wmw999 2,395]

Yeah, that's right up there with
"Where are you located?"
Answered by
"Where are you coming from?"

I never realized that location changes with direction of approach.

I'm more landmarks, maps. You give me enough turns (like more than two, or with more than two qualifiers), and I just give up on remembering them. If I can write them down, fine. Maybe.

And yes, I'm not that good at following detailed instructions, either, but I can figure out a whole lot of things, based on what they do, how they work, or what they look like.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[ryoder 1,590]

Actual instructions given to me by a pilot in the parking lot of Kalamazoo Airport when I was trying to find what would become my first DZ:

"Go South on Portage right here until you get to the liquor store, then turn left and drive until you see the big tree, turn left again and drive until you see the lake on your left, and the DZ will be on your right."

Remarkably, those instructions were excellent. The liquor store was the only business in an area of houses, and the "big tree" was huge!

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[Niki1 1]

Google Earth has a "street view". You can "drive" there before you start and see all the landmarks. But even that will not tell you where the old school house used to be. But that would require the other person to give you and address.

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossilbe before they were done.
Louis D Brandeis

Where are we going and why are we in this basket?

[jakee 1,462]

Quote

My bane in rural England is that the signage is all about location names instead of cardinal directions (there is some odd assumption that everyone in England knows the name of every little half-ass village) – you just need to know which way is east or west, but the damn signs just show directions with meaningless names like “Whipple Village” or “Lower Scrumpton”.

Nope, that's not the best thing about rural english signposts, the best thing is that the names of villages referenced will randomly change at every junction. So say you're trying to get to Fiddleford and you know that Stock Gaylard is in the same direction you can follow signposts that say either Fiddleford or Stock Gaylard. But then at some junctions neither Fiddleford nor Stock Gaylard will be signposted and it'll say Fifehead Neville instead. Which is also in the same direction but unless you know that you're screwed. (And yes, all those names are real)


Another good one is in Italy, where roads leading onto the Autostrada are only posted 'Autostrada', and other road signs with major destinations on are actually taking you on B-road cross country odysseys. So if you want to get to Brescia quickly, you ignore the sign that says 'Brescia,' leave the road that is supposedly taking you there and go in the opposite direction with the sign that says 'Autostrada' - then when you're on the Autostrada you figure out which way Brescia actually is.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[Nataly 38]

ryoder

Actual instructions given to me by a pilot in the parking lot of Kalamazoo Airport when I was trying to find what would become my first DZ:

"Go South on Portage right here until you get to the liquor store, then turn left and drive until you see the big tree, turn left again and drive until you see the lake on your left, and the DZ will be on your right."

Remarkably, those instructions were excellent. The liquor store was the only business in an area of houses, and the "big tree" was huge!

My mom and I wanted to do a bit of canyoning in Corsica... We booked ourselves into a group and our instructions were: "meeting point is at 09:00 in the parking lot with the big olive tree in the middle"

Only problem: *EVERY* parking lot had a huge fuck-off olive tree in the middle!!! We never found the group, but we saw an awful lot of pretty scenery and we also get a refund, so all good

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse."
- Chris Hadfield
« Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. »
- my boss

[adagen 0]

And there are large areas of rural England where GPS just goes quiet, not to mention the other areas where GPS takes you to a dead end and tells you to turn around. Best solution is still the paper one. Best use of technology is to print up a paper map to a scale you can glance at while driving on windy roads.

Anne

[wolfriverjoe 1,503]

Why is it that your preferred way is the only correct way?

I drive for a living. I'm maneuvering 75 feet of semi that weighs upwards of 40 tons. If I get lost, I can get a big fine for being on a road that I'm not supposed to be on, I can need to go 20 miles or more to find a place that is safe and legal to turn around.

My preference is detailed "pathing" as Quade described it. Street names, distances and compass directions. Take Hwy 123 east 5 miles to Maple St, turn left, which is north. Go 2 miles to Main St, turn right, which is north (a lot of roads wind around). And so on.

Trees get cut down or blown down in a storm. Stores and gas stations close or change names. Local names (Bailey's Hill for example) are rarely signed. "You can't miss it" is usually a red flag.

GPS and Google maps/street view has made my job a lot easier. With street view, I can "drive" down the roads I plan on taking, looking for low bridges, weight restrictions and tight turns (seeing other trucks in the pictures is a plus).

But they are only tools. There are a lot of stories about people ending up in fairly ridiculous places because they "followed the GPS."

I still end up taking wrong turns and going out of my way to reach a destination on a fairly regular basis. Usually because the directions are poor. It's kind of funny, some directions make total sense after I know how to get there. But are very cryptic if I haven't been down that road before.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[BillyVance 34]

What happens when women try to follow directions...

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[jakee 1,462]

Quote

GPS and Google maps/street view has made my job a lot easier. With street view, I can "drive" down the roads I plan on taking, looking for low bridges, weight restrictions and tight turns (seeing other trucks in the pictures is a plus).

That's my preferred way of figuring out new cycling routes - mapping out the route and then checking what the junctions look like with streetview and trying to remember them.

Of course, if I miss one and get lost on the bike it's usually just a bonus because I'll end up finding new roads and hills I didn't know existed

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[mjosparky 4]

billvon

Quote

take the highway past the Fred Meyer gas station heading up baileys hill going out of town follow it till you see the turn for independence mine and hatchets pass. Turn there. If you follow that all the way through your going to end up on the other side of Wasilla. No biggie. Follow the highway back past the sports complex, spenards, and 3 bears.
If you turn the other way your headed to Fairbanks, long trip and can get boring.

A lot of my conversations about directions go something like this:

Me: OK so what's the address?
Other person: So take the highway past the Dairy Barn and turn up Sandy Hill Road . . . .
Me: I really just need the address. I can . .
Other person: It's tricky. You have to turn towards Syosset but the sign says . . .
Me: How about the address?
Other person: Well, you can go the other way but . . . .

Eventually I just let them finish. Then I ask them something like "hey, I also have to mail a letter to them, what address should I put on the envelope?"

After 30 years as a Firefighter I found "give me an address" works best.

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[promise5 17]

It's funny how at work I rely on addresses and gps etc. but when I'm driving outside of work I totally go by "landmarks" in a sense.

No matter how slowly you say oranges it never sounds like gullible.
Believe me I tried.

[oldwomanc6 49]

promise5

It's funny how at work I rely on addresses and gps etc. but when I'm driving outside of work I totally go by "landmarks" in a sense.

Not surprising. Landmarks are a female brain type of thing. There are studies showing that females use landmarks, and males use a map "bird's eye" type of visualization. I tend much more toward the map version.

Like every other thing about studies of this sort, there is a scale with one extreme one end and the other on the other end.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
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