"Many people now rely on their smartphones, sat-navs or other GPS devices to find their way around. But when these fail us, and there's no-one to ask for directions, there's a more natural way to navigate, says Tristan Gooley."
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Computers, GPS, 'Smart' 'Phones
"GPS broken? Six extraordinary ways to find your way around"
(12 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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I was given his book for my birthday - along with the bike one - and was waiting to finish it before posting about it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I liked the satellite dish tip.
Lots of mocking comments following the article ("ask someone", "use a map"), but this kind of navigation is useful. Particularly when emerging, blinking, from a tube station.
I tend to use the sun for a quick bit of orientation.Posted 12 years ago # -
Edinburgh is easy, you can see the castle from almost every where.
Posted 12 years ago # -
We were out last night in Mid and East Lothian on a night-time club ride. Once we were out of town and it got proper dark, it was amazing how thoroughly disorientated you become, particularly as we wound our way through twisty country lanes with very few points of reference. The odd place, road and junction i recognised, but as soon as you couldn't see Edinburgh or any towns, you lose all sense of reference as to where you are and which direction you are heading. The moon was mainly behind clouds and only occasionally appeared to help with general orientation. It's very confusing to have convinced yourself that Edinburgh is to your left only to come out on the old A1 with it on your right.
But very cool.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I did a lot of competitive orienteering for years, and thought I was pretty good with a map, only to realize that much of my 'skill' was simply that I was very well oriented to the surrounding hills/ocean and knew the areas all around town that I had scampered around on for years.
Posted 12 years ago # -
It's called "pilotage" when talking about boats, nothing too earth shattering there though some nice tips.
He forgot to mention as well that *most* (but not all!) of the radial roads he mentioned in towns/cities will be numbered from the centre out.Oh and in a hospital never ask a passing doctor for directions, always a porter. (Same for Universities!)
damhikijkok@SRD, know what you mean, before a trip away a couple of years ago a group of us were tested on our map reading skills by being driven through a city we didn't know, to a bit of random countryside we didn't know, we were then given a 1:50,000 OS map and limited time to provide the six figure grid of our present location... pass or fail test. Up until then I had thought I was pretty handy with maps but i confess I was struggling/panicking before the time ran out! (passed btw, just :-o)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Most lost I have ever been was in a city (Bahia Blanca) with the grid/block system of roads. The roads were named rather than numbered and it was hell trying to find the centre.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Used all of these except for the satellite dishes when trying to find my way out of yet another European city. Checking the prevailing wind direction is very handy as it is still blowing when the sun is behind clouds, and you can feel it on the bike.
Got from Hamberg to Denmark just using the sun and the wind.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"He forgot to mention as well that *most* (but not all!) of the radial roads he mentioned in towns/cities will be numbered from the centre out."
With odds on the left and evens on the right (so in theory you only need to look at one house number to know which direction the post office/Microsoft Office is).
Posted 12 years ago # -
...and if you want to know which farmer to alert to a distressed animal look for the gate - it's always at the end of the field nearest the farm the field belongs to.
Posted 12 years ago #
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