[Closed] How many people can actually read a map these days?

I think if there is a can't read a map shift it will take a long while to filter

A retailer dropping maps is more likely to be due to online competition

I think the supported event effect is not the same as the can't read a map effect either. i think thats more the cash rich time poor brigade

The irony is that its easier than ever to navigate. Yesterday I did a walk with a map printed with the route on it, with the back up of a phone that can show my position on an OS map.

I'm quite happy with an OS map and compass but I think I'm actually getting better with the feedback from my phone

I rarely use paper maps for most of my riding these days but I still love doing adventure races where GPS assistance is banned

Yep, love a map and compass! Can't beat it!
The satisfaction of knowing where you are, where you're going and if it's a steeple or a spire, deciduous or evergreen etc. Awesome.

1.2 billion

I love maps and find the level of detail fascinating. Even when I'm using my satnav in the car I'll keep a map handy. I've found that even when using electrickery to find your way having a map to place the directions in context of where you are can be invaluable.

I heard someone say the countryside is a "closed book" to people who can't read an OS map, yet the venerable old outdoor shop near me in Reading has stopped selling them altogether. Is it such a huge shift?

I think this is far from the truth.

I think what people lack is an upbringing that exposes them to the joys of being out & about, getting lost, asking directions & finding your way again. Folk are wrapped in cotton wool; Ease of media & news access has led folk to believe there is a paedophile behind every anorak; people don't let their children bugger off for the day (we didn't give our parents the option, we just did it).

People are just not adventurous anymore. My wife & her brothers barely know the woodland that is a mile away. When asked why, they replied they just didn't feel the need to investigate or have an adventure there. The exception is her youngest brother who does go there, but was considered a tearaway in his youth.

I actually despair at the lack of adventurous spirit of today's youth. It's just easier to get on te mobile and sit outside the shops. Actually I'll shut up now as I feel a rant building.

One last thing; I think people have the basic idea how to read maps; Gps has enabled people to follow a route on their smartphones; people are no more stupid, they just cant be arsed.

CaptainFlashheart - Member
Yep, love a map and compass! Can't beat it!
The satisfaction of knowing where you are, where you're going and if it's a steeple or a spire, deciduous or evergreen etc. Awesome.

+1

Although I don't think it's changed that much, remember doing orienteering at school 15 odd years ago and the only people who could read maps were me and my friends who were in Scouts together - but even that depended on which troop you were with.

How many people could actually read a map before the introduction of GPS?
I suspect that a lot of the people who used maps to plan and navigate in the past are still doing so, in conjunction with GPS, and people who just rely on GPS and pre defined routes probably weren't big map users to begin with. So overall, there are probably more people "exploring" the outdoors these days, thanks to GPS.

Yeah, I learned in scouts too. Schools should teach it, early ish in secondary age groups, I think

I love maps and can happily sit at home "reading" an OS map the way some folk read a book. I like to look for strange features and picture what the terrain looks like. There's no doubt that GPS technology is having an impact but being able to find out where you are is often simplest bit of getting safely off the hills

druidh - Member
I love maps and can happily sit at home "reading" an OS map the way some folk read a book. I like to look for strange features and picture what the terrain looks like

*High fives fellow map geek!*

🙂

I can read a map, have navigated myself of fells in thick clag after getting lost. But I still love sportive and signposted races too, as its nice to ride / run hard, enjoy the scenery and not have to worry about navigation.

That's makes three of us.

I was amazed in a 2 day mountain race a few years ago that so many relied in GPS devices and couldn't read maps. No surpriseds which group got lost more often!!

I love maps. Im also a mountain leader. Very satisfying reaching your destination after xx miles without going wrong once. Helps a lot with cycling too. I seem to have a built in compass. Makes me very confused when people haven't the slightest idea were things are..

Maps are ace,real, you can see large areas,get the 'feel' for an area all off apiece of paper.

Mind you i've still got all my tunes on vinyl, they sound better played out on a system.

I love sitting and looking at maps, too

I plan my rides on maps but then programme them and upload to GPS and do the ride with a Satmap with OS mapping.

For walking a map is fine but when riding it's more fun not to have to keep stopping to check maps all the time. If I'm somewhere I've not been before I'll carry an OS map of the area still just in case.

How can any one not be able to read a map?

It's just a picture of the ground from above.

Yeah, many of us do that I know, but you do of course need to understand the map in the first place. I love GPS as it helps me get more out of maps and the terrain they represent. I rose with Viewranger on my phone, in a pouch on my wrist. I love it, one of the best gadget things ever to happen for my riding. Still need to know how the map works to get the best of it

I look at maps more than I read books. In fact, within arms reach of where I'm sitting, there are maps of the Yorkshire Dales, Lake District & Peak District.
I still enjoy the satisfaction of navigating in poor conditions.

I can read and navigate with a map easy enough but i prefer to navigate off road with my GPS after inputting all the relevant data and route, escape points, etc. I might print off a wee scaled down map version if i'm going somewhere new and strange to myself but I like nothing better than spreading a map out in front of the fire and wondering if thats rideable?...or perhaps that?.....,possibly that contour over there.......nope, not that one....look at the scree.... looks too dodgy etc...etc...

Another self-confessed map geek here 🙂

Anyone else love getting a new map, opening it out over the floor, and spending the evening tracing new routes, options, and adventures? And I really enjoyed the micro-navigation part of my ML training - being able to use a map to "read" the landscape in such detail in order to find an anonymous boulder in supposedly featureless ground is great ... (or maybe it's just me that gets a buzz out of that 😳 )

I've always used OS maps, and they're still my prefered form of navigation aid. I can see the advantages of GPS, especially for biking, but I will always love maps.

I showed a non-mappite the 'wheresthepath' site. He was amazed at what a map told you when related to 'the real world' (or the aerial view as it was). I love maps, always have. I prefer a map to GPS. I like using an atlas with a sat nav as it gives you a context unavailable on that tiny screen.

Maps are great. My favourite toilet reading.

glenh : You'd be surprised and it's not that rare, not everyone has been brought up in the outdoors or has the experience to navigate from a map - i know loads of folk who if you placed a map n' compass in front of them and asked them to align the map with north they'd just stare at me in confusion whilst reaching for their GPS - imho learning to navigate and tell the approx time using the sun's position relative to the months of the year may be of more benefit to mtb'rs, same goes for using the shadow n' stick or your watch method.

Then we can get into the Pole star or Orions belt but how many folk go out at night and need to navigate away from their usual trails..

All very useful stuff to learn and may save your life or someone else oneday.

Maps, particularly OS maps, are ace

Yes, can read and navigate from them here too

OS 50 are my main route finding tool, buy, highlight all Byways/Bridleways etc, scope suitable loooking loops, find parking/pubs and fill in with coughpaths, I also use MM and have a satmap but always have a map and compass as well.

Part of any holiday - new maps and dreams of great routes

ive got an OS map open right now, planning fridays ride 8)

work out a nice loop on the map, then use google earth at the junctions (street view if poss) so i know where to turn.

then on the ride i normally only look at the map at lunch time, (or if lost :oops:)

i do just love looking at maps tho, sad i know 😉

Yep, love a map and compass! Can't beat it!

Couldn't agree more. My 2 sons think I am a dinosaur for relying on maps, particularly when hiking in our mountain wilderness areas, but the maps haven't ever failed me yet and their battery doesn't go dead at a critical moment.

I trained as a navigator in the R.A.F. where we were taught navigation from the basics, the idea was to use the best (combination of most accurate and easiest to use) kit available but always be able to fall back on first principles as/when/if the kit failed. In training they progressively turned off the 'good' kit to make us less reliant on it.

I was able to put this to good use when sailing the North Sea and our Decca (pre-cursor to GPS for you youngsters :-)) failed and took a 'running fix'. When the Decca came back online we were within 1/2 a mile of where the Decca put us which, given that I was using a hand bearing compass from a yacht and Decca in that area was accurate to +/- 1/4 mile wasn't too bad.

Nowadays I use GPS so I can enjoy where I am without having to concentrate on the navigation but carry a map and compass as a fallback.

Should have asked us all for our ages

I'm 47

Maps are great and yes I can read them pretty well. Always surprises me but many folk really struggle with navigation and are scared to go out in the hills on their own.

MM on my phone gets used a lot more than paper maps these days though. Know someone who runs navigation training for a living and they use MM a lot too.

I'm 32 btw.

[quote=grum ]
MM on my phone gets used a lot more than paper maps these days though. Know someone who runs navigation training for a living and they use MM a lot too.The difference though is that you/they are using MM but know what the features on a map mean. Difficulties arise when there is a disconnect between the landscape and how that is represented in "print".

Me. Almost 35 and learned doing DofE on the North York Moors.

Hate using maps on GPS as the screen doesn't show enough of the map.

I'd say the general public has better access to maps, albeit electronically presented, than ever in history. Without paying a penny you can see an OS map of every morsel of the British Isles. 10 years ago that sort of access would either cost you a fortune or see you as a frequent flyer in your local library.

I could stare at a map for hours me.

Most folk can't 'read' a map, and never could.

38.. fairly competent map reader, can navigate fairly accurately with a compass if necessary.. would probably be a bit more confident at it but I was very much an ASBO kid rather than DofE..

Don't see how you can plan on a screen? Either it's too zoomed to see enough of the route or it's to zoomed out to see detail. Tend to use the map and compass and leave the gps in the bag just in case I'm properly stumped then I tend to just use it for a grid reference.
Have recently (last 5 years) gotten into sheet maps for driving route planning to as opposed to road atlas as you can see where you want to go and anywhere you may want to go via rather than flipping from page to page in the road atlas.

35 & 3/4

Hate using maps on GPS as the screen doesn't show enough of the map.

For me as well
I use my GPS for certain situations/locations, but rely on maps for others---also know I can take a fall, land on my map and it still works just fine. I'm 69

Got a 25k map in front of me at the moment, getting excited planning tomorrow's ride in the Black Mountains. I've had lots of riders at Afan ask me for directions after becoming "lost", despite there being signs at every junction 🙂 And know plenty of riders who have never strayed from the safety of trail centres. But I don't mind having the mountains to myself and think it's their loss...

Maps are fab. Compasses are simple. GPS are really handy, especially for the route recording abilities. I love knowing how far, how fast etc.

On the whole maps vs GPS debate?? I work on a ship (you guessed from the user name right?). I drive the thing, so have seen the gradual change from paper charts to Electronic Charts. Despite having the usefulness of ECDIS fitted to all ships I've been on in the last 10 years, we still use the good old paper chart too. Big reliable and easy to read.

52 now and been able to read an os map for 44 years. My grandad was walking in the Dales and Lakes between the wars and generally mucking about outside all his life. He taught me the year he died. I always buy the relevant OS, if I go somewhere new to walk or ride. Still able to get out of the shite if it goes claggy with a map and compass. Like lots have said, map makes great reading especially if planning a new ride.
All that said I'm going to finally buy a Garmin before long, simply to log rides.

Learned to read maps when I was 13 on outward bound courses our school used to do, (Howtown & Thurston in the Lakes)
I still love to do 'recce' rides with just a map & have no idea how to use my Garmin Etrex except for how to get a grid ref!
OS maps rule.

I'm 56 btw.

Learned to read maps and use a compass in scouts. I subscribe to the OS Get a map service and regularly print out and laminate a map to take out on the trail. No better way to try out a new route, I love it. 😀

I love maps 🙂 I find I can map read easier with map and compass than using my GPS (used for just in case moments)but I would like to be a bit more confident.I also just look at maps whilst at home, I have memory map so I can look all over the place too 🙂
I used to go riding with 2 chaps they had no idea how to read a map but it was ok because 1 of them had GPS till the battery died, good job I had my map and compass, this chap did take a map once when we went to the white peak he couldnt find where we were so he passed me the map I too one look and handed his dark peak map back and got my own map out 🙄
40 female 🙂

(29)

27 and have been able to read a map for as long as I can remember. I hate the phrase map and compass though - compasses belong in your pack or pocket 99% of the time. Would happily not carry a compass anywhere where white out is unlikely.

From my experience (several years taking hiking groups out every weekend at uni) most people can read a map well enough to get around easy terrain.

Looks around smugly at the poor lost people with flat gps batteries. And reminds them what the real world is about

On a more down tone thought why learn to map read if all you do is ride trail centres.

Pitty on them all

Oh God yes, I agree - the overwhelming orgasmic joy of reading a map. The tactile thrill of running a finger over the paper and imagining the peaks and valleys it holds, the tiny symbols that only we special few can interpret

Of course, I was the world mapreading champion seventeen years running, so I'm better at it than all of you but well done for giving it a go

(I buy the wipe-clean ones these days, mind)

Oh, I'm 108

41 & I could read a map since I was 16 (Scouts & DofE to thank for that).

If you can't read a map & you play outside then 1. You're an idiot who deserves to get into trouble & 2. You're an idiot.

I don't have a lot of time for folk who venture into the Outdoors without the most fundamental of skills..

I love maps, could quite happily sit and "read" them for hours. I love to pick out star constellations too and orientate myself that way.

Got confusing 2 days ago in northern Scotland where the sky was so clear and the surrounds so dark that I had trouble picking out the constellations from the mass of stars not normally visible near towns and cities. Incredible, beautiful sight.

But yes, it saddens me that we seem to have become a nation of people addicted to GPS and able to "navigate" from A to B so perfectly yet without having any idea where A and B actually [b]are[/b] or what is in between.

Yep, ex Queen Scout moi, love maps and marine charts

But yes, it saddens me that we seem to have become a nation of people addicted to GPS and able to "navigate" from A to B so perfectly yet without having any idea where A and B actually are or what is in between.

[citation needed]

Im 22 btw. Feel young in here 🙂 ! I suppose I did do Geography at Uni so that automatically means I should be a map reading (and colouring in) god.

I'm on old scout, best bit of education I have ever had: at 13 I could cook on a fire, climb mountains, plan expeditions, navigate, look after my patrol and generally look after myself. When I did a degree and I met guys who could wipe their arse and nothing more. They had reached adulthood without learning a single useful thing.

I now often sit in bed with an OS and read a map, rather than a book.

I have gps on my phone, but never use it other than satnav'ing car journeys.

I can read a map and enjoy reading them.

I am a Luddite when it comes to sat-navs when driving. I positively enjoy planning where I'm going and then getting there with the minimum map use, home or abroad.

When I've been somewhere I can generally find my way around there again if I ever go back.

When the satellites break down and the roads grind to a halt I'll hopefully still be able to find my way home.

I tend to use a proper map for planning, but will upload it to my gps (which has os maps) so that it's easier to follow the route on the go. I struggle to get a good picture of the area on the gps screen alone but combined with a proper map it does the trick for me.

I have been able to since i was about six. beavers, cubs, souts and now explorers. I'm also learning to be a glider pilot so navigation jumps to a whole new level in the air. The feel of my years old "chiltern hills east" OS map beside me righ now is unbeatable i know that my kids will be taught how to navigate, bushcraft etc. from an early age.

Crikey, theres alot of well read map readers who obviously like to take pride in looking down on us "none readers/believers"

I cant read a map (unless google maps counts?) and I really dont see why/how it would benefit me if I could.

I mean I live in a town, civilization. Most places I want to go tend to have sign posts. I know where work is, where my bathroom is, where the shops are etc.

If I want to go mtbing, I put my bike in the car and follow the signs to my local trail centre. Here, I follow the way marked trails until I get back to where I parked. Then I go home.

If I want to go wallking then I walk. On a footpath.

I like my life. I know what Im doing. Its safe and I always carry my mobile phone.

I dont get lost. I spend my time enjoying myself.

I am a modern man.

If I want a plug fitting to an electrical appliance then I phone the electrician. Thats what they're there for.

Dont play the hero. Dont pretend to know what you're doing with your maps and compasses and cairns. Its all guess work. It tends to be the folk like you that get into trouble. The mountain rescue is run by volunteers, they dont relish a call late on a sunday night to go and resuce a man at a top of a hill whos got lost in a badly folded A0 piece of paper.

Think on.

😆

I'm looking down on you from a 1000 metre contour line!

I have never used a map for off road rides. Don't see the point when GPS is available. Have printed off a "route guide" for Long Mynd but already had vague knowledge of the area. Even for roads I mainly use sat nav.

I'm looking down on you from a 1000 metre contour line!

😀

If only I knew what that was

I have the whole set of 1.50.000 maps and also a whole set of 1 inch maps from the 60s they make great reading .Especially coupled with the gazetteer of the country giving me every place name on the 1 to 50 thou maps in the country

Davidtaylforth - your mind uses maps all the time! [url= http://geography.about.com/cs/culturalgeography/a/mentalmaps.htm ]Mental Maps[/url]

I can, learned on D of E. Also learned that it rains a lot in the Lakes and that the Mosedale bridleway is more than a bit boggy. And little streams turn big when it rains a lot. I love looking at maps, especially of places I want to go to or have already been to but not had or needed a map at the time.

I teach geography at a comprehensive secondary school in West Yorkshire and all year 8 students learn how to read OS maps but we also link this to GPS/GIS mapping as many now have some sort of mapping on SMART phones. I feel it is important they understand how to read a sheet map as a start point.

We have also just got back from a Bronze D of E practice where 39 students, from all backgrounds, successfully navigated using a map and compass. Sadly we do find the call of the x box and other indoor activities stop many from heading outdoors and experiencing the countryside. I suppose you have to accept it isn't for everyone?

Scouts and family got me out there Age 46

Definite map lover here, nothing better than researching an area planning routes followed by on the ground navigation, recognising features and landmarks. It's a rewarding part of the challenge. I use the modern versions, it's great you can get OS maps online and scroll around, upload tracks etc but there is nothing like a paper map. I use gps extensively when sailing, having an accurate location with chart overlay is a big aide to safety at night or in bad weather, on land it's not necessary for the walking and riding I do so I don't use it.

love maps and reading them, self taught on 1:25K so struggle a bit adapting to 1:50k but can cope. 🙂

Geek alert, just happens I've two map photos from last weekend in the Lake District. Long story as to why they were taken ...

[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8177/7997662009_604db0b9eb_c.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8177/7997662009_604db0b9eb_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url] [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/78861811@N06/7997662009/ ]Helvelyn[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/78861811@N06/ ]JambalayaPhoto[/url], on Flickr[/img]

[img][url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/7997665699_d18fc55c3b_c.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/7997665699_d18fc55c3b_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url] [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/78861811@N06/7997665699/ ]Sca Fell Pike[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/78861811@N06/ ]JambalayaPhoto[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Can't use a compass to save my life but always take a map out with me and somehow have managed to find my way back. Always have a GPS with me together with spare batteries. It may involve tears and swearing but it's a learning curve.

I love my maps - they're a historical document and have opened my eyes to so much local history etc. Even have a framed map on the wall. 😳

Tables are always covered with maps or bits that I've printed or photocopied. Along with books obviously. 😳

Ahh maps...

Got more than a few OS Landrangers that have long since had their red covers ripped from my hands. All of them have been soaked and dried countless times, smudged with the residue of countless sandwiches, peat and even the odd blood stain. I can even see daylight through many of the folds.

They are like old friends and I can't bring myself to bin them 😉

I love Tracklogs and use if for planning but maps rock.

I heard someone say the countryside is a "closed book" to people who can't read an OS map,

Some of my friends, well educated people, do not read or understand topo maps. When I walk with them they are totally dependant on me to nav. They don't do anything unfamiliar for fear of getting lost.

But being so familiar with maps I never feel this even when visiting somewhere new. What I find intuitive, they find baffling. Few people seem so adventurous that they will explore unknown and unsigned places alone. I think understanding the land from maps opens a door to exploration.

Maps?
Who really needs such modern new fangled things?
I navigate using the sun ,the moon and the stars,following the wind and the birds, reading the signs of nature.
I actually climbed Scafell Pike once when in fact I was trying to climb Pillar and I used to be in the Scouts.
Time for a classic

Not read all the thread (yet), but the mention of an ex-trailquest organisor in the OP reminded me of this:

Did a TQ at the weekend. There was only 1 competitor under the age of 40. The future of the sport doesn't look all that bright (though the youngster did at least thrash all us old blokes).

Maps rock. 50 years old. I used to be a cartographer, but I'm now running DoE in local school and i am about to unleash the pleasures of the OS onto a whole new bunch of teenagers.

Maps make me excited in a schoolboy kind of way. Always have. I'm quite good at map reading but not so good at remembering to take them with me! I did 88km on saturday, planned the route in fine detail on memory map, printed it off and then left it behind. Navigated from memory and experience and got it spot on. Phew!

Old Army truism

Never trust an officer with a map.

I was obsessed with maps as a kid, as I was with weights and measures. When I have kids I will make bloody sure they can read maps; the thought of people who can only rely on gps on their phone is upsetting.

Purely for decorative purposes you understand...
[img] [/img]

About 30x Explorers, 20x Landrangers, 30x IGN Bleu and 20x Michelin.
I love maps.
In fact the reason I am where I am today is because when I was 13 I decided I wanted to be a Cartographer and so planned my education around becoming a chartered surveyor. Sad I know 😉