I'm guessing most people drive the same route day in day out. Probably do it so automatically you can't remember how you got home. But what if there's a road closure and a diversion sign? We all know those signs disappear well before they get you back on track don't we?
So it's dark, you're off your familiar route, the satnav is nagging you to take a U turn or it's reciting the Lords prayer. Do you know your local roads well enough to get back on track?
I know most of the east coast of Florida in and out and can navigate it without a map or GPS fine. I'm familiar enough with the central ridge of Florida and Orlando area and how to get from small towns and large cities in central Florida, back to the east coast where I am familiar. To some extent I know central Florida all the way up through Ocala and Gainesville and even parts of Alachua and down to the Lake Placid and Okeechobee area. On the west coasts of Florida I know the order of most of the cities off the interstate from Naples to Homosassa Springs but am less familiar with all the ins and outs. I could find my way around Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, North Port, and Venice area down through Fort Myers and up to Sarasota, but I don't remember too much about Tampa/St. Pete area even though I have been there a number of times. On highways I'm fine up and down the entire east coast of the USA and could make it to and around areas in the south like Raleigh NC, Atlanta, Ga, and into the mountains around Asheville area without a map. I could make it to all the larger cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC, etc. without a map, but once I got there I wouldn't know what's going on. The same goes for the Gulf Coast states out through Texas. I've driven all over America, but it's been a while since I drove out west. More so flew around when needed.
I understand basic civil engineering enough to find familiar routes as necessary. Problem is Californian civil engineers are twits. So i use my GPS a great deal. I can get to any place that i have to go repeatedly and back to the house without incident. As soon as i start adding stops, i have to use GPS if i want to be efficient about my routes. Otherwise i end up backtracking and circling unintentionally. Which i honestly do sometimes because i just don’t feel like being so dependent upon my phone. Occasionally i just leave the house without it as a reminder that i don’t need it on my person every minute of every day.
ROFL, your civil engineering won't do you any good in New England. They literally paved the cow paths here over the last 400 years. The roads are narrow and winding and were not "planned". They simply put them where they could to service existing villages and towns and solitary homes long before there was any "town planning or zoning board". Ans we have lots of lakes, ponds, rivers and hills made of solid granite. So thinking you can just drive east west or north south is hilarious. 9 times out of 10 you'll find yourself having to navigate some natural barrier and detour in a direction that makes no logical sense. Oh state roads and federal highway systems here follow some logic. But once you leave those for secondary roads, the only way to navigate without a GPS is pure memory or experimentation. It's fun.
My father taught me how to navigate in a forest on hand of sun and moss growth or how to triangulate landmarks. I know instinctively direction and distance to my car or home. It's just a question of training.
When I was 11 I had a paper route (I delivered newspapers in the early morning) and when I was 18-25 I delivered pizzas. Needless to say I know my town and the adjacent towns very well and could easily find my way if I was randomly dropped in any street of those towns. And for context, my town has 105,000 people, the town on one side is 75,000 people, and on the other side are two towns, one with 42,000 and one with 68,000.
And though most of my current business is done in other areas, I still get business from these towns occasionally, so I still drive those neighborhoods.
I'm still learning the roads in my area. I've only been here for 15 years, and I haven't had reason to go everywhere. I often rely on Google Maps to get where I'm going... if I haven't been there before.
Where I grew up in the Northeast, I knew those roads very well. In college, I cooped for the local electric and gas utility company, and we went all over the place. I learned not just the main roads but most of the side streets as well.
I’m not good at giving directions I go by landmarks. I say it’s over there by Shorty’s barbecue go 3 miles down and turn left when you see the restaurant or it’s over there by Brandsmart. One time I did give this guy great directions for the University of Miami gift shop to buy a football shirt
I know the major roads across the sprawl of the City of Dallas quite well having been an Animal Services Officer here and responding to calls in every corner of it for a number of years. I can't go far without finding something familiar.
I know the general setup of the city and most of the local roads. It still happened a few times (usually at night) that I ended in a different corner than I expected. 😐
It's pretty easy to navigate cause one side is always the beach and all beach to the end of the state, I live near the beach so that direction always leads home
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