Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

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Gilberto de Piento
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Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:23 pm

Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

I'm bad at navigating, like when walking and driving. I don't have any skill with cardinal directions or finding my way. I seem to navigate by looking for familiar or expected landmarks rather than cardinal directions or street names. I get turned around easily and forget easily. How do I get better at navigating?

The Old Man
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by The Old Man »

GPS

George the original one
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by George the original one »

I'm not sure how you get better other than practicing. I was taught to read maps by the time I was 6 and parents were always pointing out how to get from A to B. While we car traveled often, we only moved home 3 times before I was in high school, so I really learned my home city area and daytrip locations. I know I have a mental map of locations with a network of routes rather than memorizing details.

That was somewhat easy for Portland because the numbered streets go N-S except for the wedge of land known as North Portland, which has all named streets. For the named streets going E-W in the rest of Portland, there are no more than a dozen we remember and locations are identified as "north of Glisan" or "south of Powell". On the west side of Portland, the streets are alphabetical going north from Ankeny, with Burnside being the dividing line from NW Portland to SW Portland. The Willamette River divides east from west, with North Portland being the wedge of land in the middle because the river hooks to the NW.

Do you have troubles memorizing other things, like songs or names or numbers or formulas/recipes or anatomy?

slowtraveler
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by slowtraveler »

I'd recommend to study a map of where you want to navigate then go see how it compares to the map, learn to use a compass as well.

Without building a mental map, it's unrealistic to know an area beforehand. So pull up a map of the route you plan on walking/driving to know where you're going, things on the way, rough distance, elevation change, peculiarities (ie-1 ways). Gauge where these are in relation to streets. So if you're in SF, you can see the intersections that are increasing in elevation vs decreasing and have a sense for how to navigate the hill beforehand.

Look at the intersections where you'll be making your turns and notice what street/landmark is right before/after so you'll know when you've overshot or have room to go. See what roads run parallel vs perpendicular, where they merge, etc. Then go out, navigate the terrain for yourself and adjust your mental maps accordingly. The maps you read beforehand won't be 100% a lot of the time but they are typically over 95% accurate and this is more than enough to navigate/adjust.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by SavingWithBabies »

I'm nearly certain what improved this skill for me was playing computer games with complex levels in them. You had to get good at remembering what was where in your head to do the level really quickly. This was the first person shooter Doom. But maybe it had a stronger impact because I was a young person at the time. Later on, I played Counter-Strike a lot and it was similar but maps/levels were not quite as labyrinth in design.

Something about navigating these virtual maps seemed to help develop a sense of direction in the physical world.

I honestly don't know if that is at all useful. I don't play computer games anymore.

bryan
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by bryan »

+1 to early age exposure to looking at maps, generally navigating around, and especially to videogames! Now I am usually the best person in any group for navigating (walking) around urban areas (even when I'm out with folks from the city and I'm new to the city).. plenty of times too when it's late at night in a bar and everyone is pissed and ready to go somewhere and I'll know exactly where to go and how far it is and which way to turn when coming out of the bar's exit. It's like a shitty super power.

You can probably improve your sense in your home city just by walking around a lot. Not sure if playing videogames now will help you (or rather if it is worth the investment). I wonder if there are good videogames with accurate maps/levels of real cities?

chenda
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by chenda »

A sense of direction seems to be an aptitude some people have and some don't.

anomie
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by anomie »

+1 Chenda
a couple of things in my brain seem to have been damaged in younger years. A sense of direction I never had. I have to remember my Boy Scout training of (sun rises in the east, sets in the west, then orient from that... east is opposite from west, and figure north and south from there).

A mobile device with Google Maps installed is a life saver. even can work with no internet connection.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: Learn to Navigate Urban Areas?

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

Now I am usually the best person in any group for navigating (walking) around urban areas (even when I'm out with folks from the city and I'm new to the city).. plenty of times too when it's late at night in a bar and everyone is pissed and ready to go somewhere and I'll know exactly where to go and how far it is and which way to turn when coming out of the bar's exit
This is what I'm talking about. I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I'm ok with my own city but in new places I'm easily lost.
A mobile device with Google Maps installed is a life saver. even can work with no internet connection.
The Galileo Offline Maps app (free) is also good and seems to take up less space on the phone than google maps.
A sense of direction seems to be an aptitude some people have and some don't.
It seems like something I could train though. Based on the responses here I need to spend more time navigating with maps. It might be something that is easier to learn when young, like learning a new language is.

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