Throw away your GPS

Recently I’ve been thrown into a few situations where I need to think on my feet and navigate around cities without the aid of a GPS or Google Maps. After years of living with those two amazing tools my entire sense of navigation and direction have atrophied to the point of uselessness. Here’s the kicker, this wasn’t some strange city I’d never been to but a place where I had lived before for a significant period of time! Reliance on popping out our phones and looking up where the hell we are has become so pervasive that people are forgetting how to navigate on their own anymore.

I wrote the above paragraph yesterday as part of a post on maps and navigation in a city that I’ve had rummaging around in my head. Then as if a gift from the aether I woke up to this… GPS system ‘close to breakdown’. And it makes even more sense to me now to go back to old fashioned way finding. Losing such a ubiquitous technology would be pretty hard on a lot of folks like myself who have let our natural navigation abilities fade into the background as our reliance on GPS and Google Maps have moved to the forefront.

Every noob who moves to LA buys a Thomas Guide and when I first moved here about 15 years ago I was no exception. After 6 months of using it religiously I knew the city like the back of my hand. Once I got comfortable with my travels I stopped using it and haven’t looked at one since. The reason I mention it is because that part of the city I had memorized was the very same one that I had completely forgotten years later. It wasn’t the main streets I’d lost but the nuances of the side streets and the ability to pick out which way was North from any given location. I think a lot of us have gotten into that same pattern. We commute on the same roads day in day out or take the trains that bypass great swaths of civilization that we may someday have to traverse without GPS or even vehicles.

For the past several years I’ve lived in San Francisco. A small 7 mile by 7 mile city with less than a million people in it. I didn’t own a car and I walked about 5 miles a day. I knew a lot of the city by heart but I still used GPS and Google maps day in day out. I eventually found a way to engrain what I was seeing on the computer screen into my brain and it’s my first tip on learning your area.

Draw the map and leave the GPS and printouts behind.

If you are still at home and going some place you’d usually print out a Google map or use some sort of GPS for this is the perfect time to practice this tip. Get out a notebook or piece of paper and draw the route. Even if you’re not an artist maps are drop dead simple to draw. Include the major cross streets and side streets 2 levels deep on either side of your route. That way if you do take a wrong turn you have some points for reference to get back on the right path. Also write down the compass directions on each side of the map. This will help you get those directions burned in so you’re going to be smarter the next time you have to make that trip or just when you find yourself in that area again.

Buy a pocket compass

Inherent knowledge of the points of the compass is something we all have at certain places but utterly leaves us in places that we are unfamiliar with. If we have to get directions from a local they’re going to pass that information on usually but if you get turned around it’s handy to just be able to look at your compass and stay on track and not get confused. It’s also a fun to use when you get to new areas and always stay orientated and learn the lay of the land.

Know the landmarks

In a new city that you’re learning it’s very helpful to draw a map with your point of origin and a widening circle of landmarks and tall buildings that you can use to find your way back home. Remember to draw the map though! The act of drawing it really burns everything in that just looking at a store bought map can’t. It’s also handy to keep a store bought map on you but use your own map as much as you can until it becomes habit and you can find your way around without it.

These are just some really basic tips that can help you start to take back reliance on technology as a form of navigation. I’ll be going into some more advanced techniques and debunking some common myths in future posts.