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This week, we're talking about how to be a good navigator on a road trip.
Question: My travel companion and I love taking road trips, but we sometimes have disagreements when one is driving and the other is navigating. What are some tips to being a good navigator?
Tom’s answer: Wow, that is a great question! Personally, I have taken a lot of road trips over the years with family, friends. Lately it's just my wife and me, but I don’t recall a lot of disagreements while on the road to be honest. I have always considered road trips a shared adventure, filled with great memories and lots of compromise, but I am sure others have experienced some tension while on the road, especially related to navigation.
I often drive when we travel, and most often use a paper map or atlas to plan a trip before I leave or as a reference for when we stop on the road. I prefer not to use a GPS with turn-by-turn directions while on a road trip and only use the “map app” on my phone if I need to find an address or check out some detailed streets in an area we are heading. In general, I trust my sense of direction and feel a road atlas or state map will provide most of the info I need to get us there.
Trip planning before you hit the road:
To answer your question, here are some tips or ideas for being a good navigator on a road trip.
1. Plan your route before you leave.
To start, it is always wise to plan out your route before you leave. You can use a mapping application or even a GPS device and try to become familiar with the route in general. Plan out a backup route as well because you never know what you might encounter once on the road. Watch for points of interest to see along the way, and track locations for a break, like gas stations, rest stops, and attractions. Plus, if you prefer to avoid paying for toll roads, check if your mapping application includes an option to avoid tolls or look for toll roads on the printed map before you leave.
2. Use a paper map to get the big picture.
I might be biased, but I would strongly suggest looking at a paper map as well because of the big picture view you get with a printed map compared to a mapping app. Plus, I always travel with a printed map of some sort in the vehicle for reference and backup.
3. Bring a paper map or download maps for backup if you lose signal.
You can even download our Rand McNally maps to your phone or other devices as offline maps to reference if you don’t have a paper map to bring with you on the road.
For example, say you are traveling from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls and run the route on a mapping app. You probably will see a few different route options which suggest around a six-hour drive. If you reference a printed map like shown below along with the route suggestions from the app, you will notice rest stops and service areas and even toll roads along the way as shown within the red boxes on the map below. Plus, you might see numerous parks and points of interest which could turn into a new stop along the route. Using the routing application in combination with the printed map is often the best way to plan before you leave on your road trip.
4. Brush up on your map reading skills.
Check out the map legend so you understand the symbology and road classifications and look at the map scale to help with distance calculations. Maps are easy to read if you take a little time to understand what they are presenting.
On the Road:
1. Be an Active Co-Pilot and Announce What's Coming Up
Follow the route and communicate early about what is coming up along the way such as turns, exits, lane changes. Use exit numbers and landmarks to help guide the driver.
2. Keep an Eye Out and Think Ahead
Keep an eye out for gas stations, rest stops and detours that might be of interest. If you are looking at the map, you might notice a place you would like to visit that you didn’t notice during your initial planning activities, which could turn into an exciting change in plans.
3. Be Flexible and Have a Backup Plan
Be prepared for unexpected detours or road closures. Having a backup plan or alternate route can be useful. Unplanned stops are often fun, exciting and can add wonderful memories to a road trip.In the example I mentioned earlier for the Philly to Niagara Falls road trip, say your companion is a baseball fan, but you didn’t notice Williamsport, PA is along the route you are following. If you are tracking the route on a road atlas map, you might notice the Little League World Series location is just outside of Williamsport and suggest a side trip to check out the facilities.
4. Help Advise on Complex Interchanges
Another helpful tip if you are using a GPS or mapping app on your phone is to provide lane assistance to the driver when you approach a complex interchange, especially when you are traveling in unknown areas. Plus, most mapping apps include traffic monitoring so looking ahead at traffic congestion and offering solutions before the app tries to reroute you is another great tip for a navigator.
5. Stay Alert and Observant
This applies to being a good navigator as well as being a good driver! Watch out for road signs that the driver might miss while they are focused on the road and pay attention to mile markers which can be a valuable location reference if you have car trouble or an emergency. A good navigator can also look for driver fatigue and suggest breaks to avoid potential issues and stay safe.
6. Let the Driver Choose the Tunes
One tip I always suggest is to let the driver pick the tunes…but that never works out for me! Finally, one of the best pieces of advice I can offer is that road trips require compromise, so in my experience the ability to adjust expectations is one of the keys to a successful and stress-free road trip.
Thanks again for the question. Hopefully, I provided a few tips and ideas related to being a good navigator on a road trip. Feel free to submit your map or cartography questions below and check back next Tuesday for another installment of "Ask a Cartographer".
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