Mapping Hacks

22

|

Chapter 1, Mapping Your Life

#6 Make Route Maps Easier to Read

HACK

The bottom line? The coast route is only 22 miles longer. No problem. It is

also nearly an hour and a half longer, and the average speed is 11 mph

lower. Ultimately, we elected to go straight down I-5, and we didn’t get

home until 4:30 A.M., so I’m just as happy that we managed to avoid driv-

ing until 6:00 A.M. both going up and coming home.

HACK

#6

Make Route Maps Easier to Read Hack #6

Trade in complex, hard-to-read maps produced by most online route-finding

services for the clean, schematic maps of driving directions made with

MSN’s LineDrive.

Online route-finding services have, in some ways, revolutionized the task of

plotting travel routes. Rather than bothering would-be hosts to tediously—

and perhaps inaccurately—describe driving directions to their location by

phone or email, the savvy Internet-connected automobile driver can simply

say, “I’ll just look it up on [insert your favorite online map service here].

Forty-five minutes, you say? See you then!” The sheer practical utility of

such a tool has been the main driving force behind the development of most

online, consumer-oriented mapping services.

The reality, however, is a bit uglier. Often, the maps produced by online

route-finding services leave a bit to be desired. Figure 1-13 shows the map

generated by MSN Maps & Directions (formerly MapBlast) to depict a driv-

ing ...