When I was about 12, someone asked me for directions as he was going around in circles in his car. I gave him directions which I later found out was several miles in the opposite direction.
I’m 36 and I still think about this. I hope he found his destination…
Maybe he is still driving to this day.I’m pretty much the same way with places I’ve lived where I had to drive everywhere. My current city though, 6 months after moving here (and 6 months of living car-free) I could give people detailed directions around a significant chunk of the city (the areas where I went).
Same when I moved to a different part of the city and started biking around that part of town.
You’re so much more aware of your surroundings when walking or biking.
so relatable lmao
It’s so funny, my kids split out exactly half and half, one half of them I could have driven to Miami before they realized we weren’t headed to school, and the other half, if I took a different route would scream “you are going the wrong way!”
Bro how many kids you got
A lot. 4 that I had plus 5 I married into, some of those 5 my husband had adopted, some he’d spawned. Some were already grown when we got together though, so we didn’t have them all in the house (or car) at once.
It’s nice now they are grown because the kids have a good network of siblings and boyfriend/girlfriends, they hang out together and get along, help each other.
So true hahah
I live in the suburbs outside Washington, DC. One evening, we were in Bowie, MD (east of DC) at a shopping center, and a woman asked us for directions to the Mormon Temple.
For those who are not familiar, the Mormon Temple is off the beltway north of DC. It’s 25 miles away, and right now - nearing midday - it’s showing a 34 minute drive. However, when this happened, it was the evening rush hour, so it was at least an hour away, probably closer to an hour and a half, honestly. It was a drive I wouldn’t want to make, if I could avoid it.
She didn’t believe us. My wife just headed into the store we’d been heading for. I tried to convince her some more, but eventually she just drove off to ask someone else. I wonder how that adventure ended for her.
The only thing I can figure for how she got so far off course: I think she started typing the address of the Mormon Temple (which is on Stoneybrook Drive in Kensington) into whatever map app she was using, and the app gave her a result on Stonybrook Drive in Bowie, and she went with it - the shopping center we were at is just off Stonybrook. Note they aren’t spelled the same, but I can understand overlooking that. Who knows where she started and how long she’d been driving already.
I use navigation to go to the grocery store.
My friends and relatives couldn’t believe that I didn’t know the route to my school or home. Apparently, it’s something you should just know after years of taking those routes even as a passenger. I didn’t know that it wasn’t normal for your brain to be constantly preoccupied with thoughts and that you should just be able to focus on things and remember them. It sucks living in a shithole where people either dont know anything about mental disorders or dont care that you have one.
I often get food delivery people asking if I know where X number apartment is in my building when I’m out walking my dogs. Man, I don’t fucking even remember my own number half the time. All I can say that if you’re looking for 1 but you’re way the fuck over by 120, you are on the exact opposite side of the complex that you need to be.
One day I was walking about.
Someone said “Excuse me, could you tell me where is (random street)?”
I was like “That sounds familiar, hold on a second.”
Looked it up from the map on my phone.
It’s literally the next street over.
It was about that time I decided people perhaps shouldn’t ask me directions if they value their time.I think that often. Turns out, a lot of people are incapable of looking up information on the internet. So me spending 2 minutes searching it saves someone hours, somehow.
I’m definitely not with majority on this. Every city I’ve lived in, I can navigate decently well by major streets, highways, landmarks, etc. I think it came with the fact that I moved around so much growing up. I always want to feel like I know the area, so I’ll study a map for a couple hours whenever I first move in.
I’m not afraid to confess that I’ve given completely fabricated directions out of pure embarrassment.
“Yes, yes, just continue straight in that direction for a while and then turn left twice and you are there!”
Those poor souls…
I feel dumb whenever people are telling me road names, of even major roads. Like, I know the turns to take to get to a couple regular places, who’s got the time to check out the street sign while watching traffic/turning?
You don’t hear the road names when your GPS tells you where to turn? I’m shocked by how many people are unfamiliar with major roads in their city. I’ve met people who couldn’t even tell me what crossroads they lived at. To me, part of learning to drive meant making a note of the road names near me so I was familiar with locations based on road names.
I’m not old either, I’m in my early 20s.
This is common. I drive and ride a bicycle a lot, so I know the area really well and rarely need a GPS for day-to-day navigation. I’ll use it during rides to make sure I stay on the route for the ride, and for unusual situations (like confirming the most direct route home after a major mechanical problem). But, in general, the GPS is the backup to my knowledge.
There have been many times when a route change was proposed for some reason, and the change was laid out clearly with road names, on roads we’re familiar with, and people are in agreement. But it turns out most of them have zero idea where we’re talking about, and when the turn comes, they’re all confused - “I thought the route went straight here!” Uh, it did, until we decided to change it at the last rest stop, as we discussed…
These are people that have been riding these roads for years or even decades. We’re generally older people, too, that grew up without GPSes, so you’d think that navigation would be built in. At 49, I’m usually the youngest of the group. There’s one guy - older than me - that has been riding in the area for two decades, and he does truly know every road and every port-a-pot in the area. He also doesn’t use a GPS bike computer and just memorizes the routes. But most people seem to have little idea of road names or how it all fits together.
After a few incidents where confusion reigned after a course change mid-ride, I’ve banned “day of” route changes from rides I lead, for anything other than a serious problem - unexpected bad weather, mechanical or medical issues, road construction, etc. People just don’t know what change we’re making, and it causes all kinds of confusion.
Which savage listens to the gps? Turning off the sound is the first thing I do. Although I have been considering getting a snoop dogg voiced gps or maybe Douglas Hedley (the philosophy professor from Cunk).
My GPS stays silent. Glancing at the map is less distracting for me.
I live in the country - I know what road I live on and the couple connecting roads, but not the roads around the city a ways away that has my regular places, or the big highways I’ve not really had much reason to use. I don’t really drive all that much, and once I learned how to get to my usual places from the GPS (which did say the names) then I knew which turns to take and didn’t need it, so I never heard the names after that. They’ve just not been all that relevant to me getting places unless someone tries to give me directions that way, where it’s almost always easier just to have an address.
Granted I’m not much of a fan of driving really, I avoid it if I can which makes being in the middle of nowhere a bit more inconvenient heheheh
“Easy, just go down to that park where they have the pumpkin festival in the fall, then turn right. At the greengrocer’s, well, where it used to be, I think they built something else there now? Anyway, cross the street there, and right before you reach Maggie’s yard, say hello to her from me, will you? you’ll have to go down to that other place, I forgot the name but they have the best chocolate cake you’ve ever tasted…”
Grandma please, just tell me the address!
What’s really fun is asking someone like that directions in an emergency. You’ll get the same winding explanation, but in triplicate, all at once, since the fastest route is one of those depending on a half-dozen seemingly unrelated factors.
Relevant music video
I struggle with spatial awareness and memory and why wouldn’t I use the amazing achievement that is ubiquitously available GPS service and directions?
