Hands up who owns a map?

[ufkacbln]

Slightly OT...

My ambition is to wallpaper the downstairs loo with the local OS maps, then draw in all our cycle routes.

We have a large sale UK map in the dining room that shows all our tours and the Coastal Route we did / are still doing,

 

[Globalti]

But has any of you map lovers ever taken a balloon or light aircraft flight about your immediate area? Now THAT is an eye-opener - you get to see how your own perception of layout and distances corresponds with reality and you get to see things you never noticed on the map - for example working quarries are just left blank by map makers and are usually landscaped with berms or forest hiding them so they don't figure much in our knowledge of our area. However when seen from the air a quarry is a huge and surprising feature of naked earth or rock along with all the roads and the infrastructure.

 

[Globalti]

Slightly OT...

My ambition is to wallpaper the downstairs loo with the local OS maps, then draw in all our cycle routes.

We have a large sale UK map in the dining room that shows all our tours and the Coastal Route we did / are still doing,

My ambition is to hire a warehouse and paper the entire floor with all the OS 1:25,000 maps of Britain joined up. I wonder how long that would take to do and whether you'd be able to do it all in one go without any bits missing? I wonder what size warehouse you'd need?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I no longer have any maps, if I need a map for a trip I just download it off the internet and print it. If I'm planning a trip on roads I don't know I will use the internet maps and google street view to study the route.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Like others on here I love OS maps and can spend ages just studying them for new places to go. I have about 20 at the moment covering everywhere I'm likely to go locally, the Lake District and Mid Wales.

I've never had or used a GPS. I can't imagine I would give it enough use to justify buying one. I suppose it helps that I have a fairly good memory for maps so once I have planned a route I don't have to stop too often to check I'm still going the right way.

Just got to plan that route to the coast now.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Loads. Always bought the appropriate maps for the area visited, but since the internet, use memory map, streetmap, bikehike, google maps, (streetview useful too when planning routes), and print out the required maps on A4 . ALWAYS take a print-out map on club runs, to back up route sheets. Maps are essential, whatever format.
I will happily read an OS map, much like you read a book.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I own about 50 in all, mix of OS and Sustrans and old Philips/Bartholomews. In Haywards Heath the branch of Zizzi's is wallpapered with OS maps down the ages showing the growth of the town. Lunch mates have complained that I get 'zoned out' looking at the walls and studying my commute route and what has changed.

If going somewhere new the first thing I always do is buy a map. But I do plot routes to and through pastures new on an Etrex Vista.

 

[sdr gb]

I have about 6 or 7 OS maps plus Memory Map on the laptop. If I'm going somewhere new, I'll download the route to a GPS and print off the route from Memory Map as a backup.

Before I got Memory Map, I had one of those little wheel things (looks like a mini pizza cutter) that you moved along the map to work out the distance accurately.

 

[Globalti]

There's a very good way of estimating distances on a map; it was shown to me by an elderly friend of my Mum and I doubted it at first but it is actually amazingly accurate and works better the further you go.

Simply follow the route and count EVERY time it crosses a blue grid line, then halve that number to get the miles. You must count every time it crosses, even if it just dives across then back again. It works with both scales of map, you'll be amazed at how accurate it is.

 

[broomwagon]

I love looking at maps. I've got loads here, all for where I like to walk, so mainly of the lakes and yorks and derbyshire dales. I've also got a globe of the world in the house and a big f**k off atlas of the world that weighs a ton. They've all helped to educate the kids too.

 

[Globalti]

On Saturday I got chatting in a cafe with a cyclist who was up in Lancs visiting his in-laws and had borrowed a very old OS map from his FIL; it was fascinating to see the differences especially around the areas of towns where commercial and industrial estates and relief roads have been built for modern transport use.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

I have about 6 or 7 OS maps plus Memory Map on the laptop. If I'm going somewhere new, I'll download the route to a GPS and print off the route from Memory Map as a backup.

Before I got Memory Map, I had one of those little wheel things (looks like a mini pizza cutter) that you moved along the map to work out the distance accurately.

Opisometer

 

[Ian H]

Online maps don't do quite the same thing as proper OS maps. Compare these two views, Google and OS:-

Google maps, Dulverton, Edge of Exmoor
OS (Streetmap), Dulverton, Edge of Exmoor

I use gps on the bike but generally plan a route via OS. Walking I still use an OS map as primary reference, but often carry gps.
Bikehike.co.uk is a brilliant online route planner because it uses OS and Google or Open Street in parallel.

 

[palinurus]

Got a fair few, although I do recycle them from time to time since the ones I use a lot get worn out (I dislike those waterproof map pocket things so my maps sometimes get a bit soggy and wear out along the seams)

 

[Peteaud]

loads of them.

Always like to look at maps, love older ones.