Defensive Driving

The younger you are, the easier it is to take technology for granted. Whether you are cynical or, like me, more easily entertained, I find mapping services like G-Maps simply miraculous. The people who have put together these tools over the last 10 years are brilliant.

If you never utilized this excellent service, go to maps.google.com right now. It doesn’t matter where you are going… the shortest most up to date driving instructions and road maps are seconds away.

G-Maps has been my choice for a few years already. The know-how in the geo-mapping arena has advanced amazingly yielding miraculous immediate maps of most of the planet and directions to just about anywhere on planet Earth.

Below are brief reviews of G-Maps, MapQuest And Rand McNally maps, reading them should curtail your learning curve when you arrive.

After years with MapQuest I typically use G-Maps currently (although Map Quest still has one very unique feature I will let you know about in a minute). My partiality for this Google service developed after finally examining their very easy to comprehend directions.

It is an astonishing bit of technology which will present you with both maps virtually anywhere in the world and detailed driving instructions in many countries.

G-maps is extremely feature rich and their manual does a much better job of explaining it than we can. With that in mind, let’s cover the main features, you will find heaps more when you explore the website.

You can view earth satellite images all over the world and superimpose streets on those satellite images, it’s awesome. All the key map categories are available to view.

You can zoom into Westminster Abbey in London and actually distinguish tourists walking around or see the traffic entering the on ramp of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Map overlays can be added for almost anywhere as well.

Another unique feature of G-Maps is that it lets you to amend the route it has laid out for you, simply by dragging the route marking to a different point. We often know alternate routes, learned by experience that we want to stick to. The other services will not let you change the path… with G-Maps it’s easy and immediate.

Rand McNally has been making maps since 1872, if you do the math, what you’ll see right away is that’s a very long time. All truck stops in the US as well as large gas stations retail Rand McNally maps. They are mostly in the printed map business but also have a website that provides on line maps and directions. They are a good way to cross check directions from other services.

MapQuest has been around since the good old days of the internet… 1996… so by e-standards, it’s very mature if not antique. AOL bought it in 2000 and remains in charge.

I could not count how many times Mapquest has provided me accurate road maps. They have first-rate US and European coverage but are definitely weaker on the rest of the planet. If you use them in the States, they are quite specific and typically reliable. The map accuracy drops off somewhat in high growth cities, mapping always lags hyper growth .

Map Quest has a “Gas Prices” icon right on the top menu bar that will search for the best gas or diesel costs anywhere in the US. This is a real money saver and personally, I check it before every fill up if I can.

Between the three of these websites, you should be able to find your way around anywhere on the planet.

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