Paper maps vs GPS

[strollin]

I read people stating constantly in these forums that they don't trust GPS and want to always verify with a paper map.

Can those of you that believe that's true, please explain why you feel a paper map will be any more accurate than a GPS?

I don't know how maps are made exactly but I believe that the map data comes from the same source whether for a paper map or GPS. It seems to me that the process of producing a paper map would be a longer process than putting the map data into a GPS so it follows that the data used to print a map is probably older than the GPS data. Not only that, but often the GPS data can be periodically updated.

Why then should someone trust a paper map more than a GPS?

[john_bet]

fj12ryder wrote:
Your right hander must be a heck of a navigator. Or do you stop at every intersection to check the map? I simply can't imagine going back to a paper map.

You can have my GPS when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. 🙂

If you are refering to me, the post above yours, I have a gps. A very cheap one the wife bought several years ago. But that is ok. I get around just fine for us. No right seat navigator. I pick out our route on an Atlas for the next day and go. The big picture part of the trip is looked at on the 2 page US map in the Atlas. No GPS or computer program can do that. To me it is to much time to do much planning on a computer. Like I said it is how I do it and it works fine for us, but others do not agree and that is fine. Happy trails to you.

[AprilWhine]

It may be "easier" to crack a nut with your teeth, but once you master using a nutcracker you won't go back. As with any tool, including GPS, first you have to learn to use it.

[vermilye]

Both maps & GPSs have their advantages & disadvantages. I use both & do my best to choose the system that makes the most sense for the situation. For example, it would be impossible to carry county/town level road paper maps for everywhere in the US; a GPS does a great job at this. On the other hand, looking at the "big picture" doesn't work well on a GPS. Pull back and the secondary roads start to disappear.

As to poor GPS routing compared to maps, I still remember back in the 70's when AAA routing me on County Rt 3 between Alma, CO & Leadville, CO. This is a old dirt stagecoach road that goes over Mosquito Pass, requires 4 wheel drive, & usually doesn't open until mid July...

[johnnyrv]

If you miss a turnoff in Atlanta the gps will quickly reroute you back. Better than fumbling with paper maps on the side of a busy freeway.

[pconroy328]

Arg - nothing like botching terminology to anger the engineer.

GPS is shorthand for a bunch of satellites that can tell you your position on the globe with unparalleled speed and precision. GPS is absolutely one of our greatest inventions.

GPS simply tells you that you are currently at Latitude 39.2707, Longitude -105.9821.


Now what you do with that position is up to you.

If you want to plot that position on a paper map - wonderful!
If you want to plot that position on a SOFTWARE map - be it GPS Receiver, or Laptop Software - awesome!


Accuracy of the map - has zip, nada, zilch to do with GPS.

For those of us in the States, there are a only a handful of companies that make maps. Everyone buys/leases/licenses those maps for their software and for their paper maps.

Like someone else has pointed out - if your GPS Receiver gives you bad directions there are at least two culprits: the routing engine and the mapping software.

Impugning GPS - the satellites - is grossly unfair.


I'm a map-aholic. I have several GPS receivers, and a raft of paper maps. Including TOPOs on a spare portable hard drive.

[AsheGuy]

We have been all over the US & Canada some pre-RV and a lot with our RV. Evolved from Rand McNally maps, DeLorme software on a laptop, GPS, and increasingly with my smart phone. Still carry a Rand McNally atlas, but seldom reference it.

As many have said, common sense is the key. Yes, our GPS (4th generation) occasionally does a dumb route, but the aid of the GPS far outweighs this downside. Also, GPS searching for a destination is not up to par with Google Maps on a smart phone and can be maddening at times. But again, the GPS wins out due to its many benefits. To match a GPS with paper maps, it would be necessary to not only carry a road atlas, but also county/province maps of every county/province in North America.

Those that bad mouth GPS's must not understand how to use them without committing blunders and/or what features they have.

And there has not been much mention of the GPS's main feature. It is impossible to ever get totally lost with a GPS. It always knows where you are even if you don't. Just put in a known destination and it will get you from where you are to where you want to be.

I do think GPS's will lose out soon to smart phones/tablets due to their better user interface for generating a route and their searching capability. I often find my Garmin GPS cannot find a destination due to my not matching exactly how it knows that destination, when my Android smart phone instantly finds it. Only a few obstacles remain like the need to be Internet connected and the while driving interface that is still inferior I think to the GPS.

[sue_t]

face_down wrote:
Your phone using Google Maps or Waze is the best GPS out there and not even comparable to a paper maps.

We live where there is NO cellular service. We camp even further from cellular service.

If you plan to visit Yukon or Alaska, don't rely on your phone to work along all the highways, or between communities.

GPS comes in handy if you want to know where you're at and what's ahead. Although the mapping here is out of date, so don't be surprised if the GPS shows you going cross country apparently miles from the highway line on the GPS. Some of the maps haven't been updated since the late 1950s - not enough population to make it worthwhile, I guess.

[face_down]

Your phone using Google Maps or Waze is the best GPS out there and not even comparable to a paper maps. Apps like Google and Waze are always updated, automatically, with the latest and greatest road data. They benefit from real-time live updates including traffic, accidents, road work, and on Waze police activity. In these events they can also re-route you around them if it is possible. If you have not tried either, I would give them a try next time, best of all they are free!

[23mikey]

rk911 wrote:
completely and blindly trusting either will get you into trouble. common sense and a general idea of where you are headed is a pre-requisite for their use. it also doesn't hurt to preview the planned route in the GPS.

x2

[Lorne_Lorraine]

We successfully completed multiple cross continental trips in the US and Canada before and after GPS. Didn't get a GPS until 2007. Soon wished I had done so years before. Haven't touched a paper map since.

[johnnyrv]

You would have to carry a lot of maps to get the same detail as a gps. Our smartphone and a truckers atlas are our backups if our garmin fails

[fj12ryder]

Your right hander must be a heck of a navigator. Or do you stop at every intersection to check the map? I simply can't imagine going back to a paper map.

You can have my GPS when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. 🙂

[john_bet]

I like a few started traveling across country in the age way before GPS's, '67 to be exact. Been doing it ever since. We did 7k miles last year from Indiana thru many states on our way to Montana. Then we had a chance to go to Portland. On the way there we decided on a side trip to Grand Coulee Dam. For our trip back to Great Falls we headed southeast out of Portland and on over to Idaho up to Missoula and on over to Great Falls on MT. 200. From Great Falls it was on to Rapid City then Cheyenne and then I-80 to Lincoln,Ne. From there it was state,Federal roads thru Missouri, Ill. and home to Indiana. Never once did we use the cheap GPS we have to guide us. No wrong roads taken or lost. Guess I saved a lot of money on those expensive GPS that can get you into trouble. Just my experience and others may be different.

[rk911]

sue.t wrote:
...BUT I don't use the "features". Gravel Gerty (as we call the voice) is known for routing us into the sticks on roads that haven't existed for 50 years. The routing features are only as good as the programmer.

and the maps are only as good as the last update.

[sue_t]

The GPS is good for live tracking, showing where you are, when. When we're in the bush, it's invaluable for letting us know the topography, how much further to hike or drive the bumpy backroad before reaching the lake or river for fishing.

BUT I don't use the "features". Gravel Gerty (as we call the voice) is known for routing us into the sticks on roads that haven't existed for 50 years. The routing features are only as good as the programmer.

I had to chuckle once, while talking with a Garmin staffer, she asked me why I'd use a GPS if not to find points of interest such as the coffee shops or restaurants or gas stations. What? The places we prefer to go don't have commercial establishments. We use the Garmin to get into the bush. I also use it to geotag my photos. It's good to discover exactly where I was when I took a photo. Now some cameras have GPS built in - in fact I used the camera to take a picture when we were hiking without the GPS and we wanted to know how far we got in the bush. Back at home at the computer, I figured it out.

The GPS is just another tool. It isn't meant to override common sense.