Mapping Hacks

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Chapter 1, Mapping Your Life

#6 Make Route Maps Easier to Read

HACK

In contrast to the conventional map shown in Figure 1-13, the LineDrive

map compresses the 112 miles of the trip spent on the New Jersey Turnpike

down to the same length on the map as the 4 miles along US 50 in Mary-

land or half a mile down 15th St NW in Washington, because all a driver

needs to do along each of those road segments is to stay on the road! At the

same time, each and every turn required to get from one place to the other is

recorded on the LineDrive map, from going round the block with the flow of

traffic when leaving the White House, to taking I-295 across the Delaware

Memorial Bridge to bypass Philadelphia. The presence of Philadelphia as a

thing to bypass is omitted by this map, as are many other irrelevant geo-

graphic facts, for the precise reason that you don’t actually need to know

that Philadelphia exists in order to travel from Washington to New York—

you just need to follow the directions on the map. With the elimination of

border controls under the Schengen Treaty, European driving maps don’t

even show national borders—just distances, turns, and route numbers!

How LineDrive Works

LineDrive uses the same route-finding backend as MSN’s standard route

maps. However, instead of rendering the usual set of cartographic layers and

highlighting the route on top, LineDrive starts by collecting all of the geo- ...