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> When I bought my first car in 1999, the very first thing I did was buy an SF Bay Area Thomas Guide and study it. I knew that I was going to be driving in the

> When I bought my first car in 1999, the very first thing I did was buy an SF Bay Area Thomas Guide and study it. I knew that I was going to be driving in the Bay Area I better learn all the major streets and freeways. I don't think new drivers today do that. They just rely on apps. I don't think most old drivers did that. I didn't. I got my license in 1997. I don't recall ever looking at a map for where I grew up (Norther Virginia, DC suburbs). I navigated based on memory, landmarks and street signs learned from watching my parents drive. I didn't start looking at maps until I moved to places I did not intuitively know. Consequently, I had a much better understanding of basic geography in those places than I did where I grew up. Since I imagine more people were like me than like you, I'm willing to bet that with the advent of smarthpones with map apps, more people have better geographic knowledge of the places they are in, not less.

bdowling 7y ago
> I don't think most old drivers did that. I didn't. It may have been regional. In Los Angeles, where I was in high school in he early 1990s, literally every kid I knew with a car had a Thomas Guide. When standalone GPS units appeared (e.g., TomTom, Garmin), I wondered why there wasn’t a Thomas Guide brand GPS, because Thomas Guide was the dominant brand for the thing that helped you get around LA. If Thomas Guide was only a regional success, that would explain why that never happened.
- jboles 7y ago
  I think it’s one of those things you learn from your parents by riding in the car with them, and the relative age one starts driving vs moving far from their childhood home. I did both - learning names of roads, landmarks and routes from the back seat, then later studying their Gregory’s (Sydney street directory), more than my parents ever did, and navigating for them from the back seat. To this day some of my friends think I’m some crazy human GPS for being able to remember how to get somewhere after traveling there only once, sometimes 10+ years earlier.
  - bdowling 7y ago
    Yes, I learned my way around that way as well. The Thomas Guide was for getting to new places I hadn't been, or finding an efficient route home.
jedberg 7y ago
To clarify, I got my license in 1993 and never studied the map because I already knew it from navigating my parents and just being in the car. I only studied the map in 1999 because I happen to buy a new car in a new city.

bdowling 7y ago

> I don't think most old drivers did that. I didn't. It may have been regional. In Los Angeles, where I was in high school in he early 1990s, literally every kid I knew with a car had a Thomas Guide. When standalone GPS units appeared (e.g., TomTom, Garmin), I wondered why there wasn’t a Thomas Guide brand GPS, because Thomas Guide was the dominant brand for the thing that helped you get around LA. If Thomas Guide was only a regional success, that would explain why that never happened.

jboles 7y ago
I think it’s one of those things you learn from your parents by riding in the car with them, and the relative age one starts driving vs moving far from their childhood home. I did both - learning names of roads, landmarks and routes from the back seat, then later studying their Gregory’s (Sydney street directory), more than my parents ever did, and navigating for them from the back seat. To this day some of my friends think I’m some crazy human GPS for being able to remember how to get somewhere after traveling there only once, sometimes 10+ years earlier.
- bdowling 7y ago
  Yes, I learned my way around that way as well. The Thomas Guide was for getting to new places I hadn't been, or finding an efficient route home.

jedberg 7y ago

To clarify, I got my license in 1993 and never studied the map because I already knew it from navigating my parents and just being in the car. I only studied the map in 1999 because I happen to buy a new car in a new city.