<story><title>Paper map sales are booming</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-paper-map-sales-are-booming-11674164824</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>massysett</author><text>In a lot of ways, electronic maps are still inferior to the Triptik.&lt;p&gt;Even the Rand McNally showed highway rest areas and picnic areas.  The Triptik also showed gas stations.  Electronic maps often lack this entirely, at least in easy form.&lt;p&gt;The Triptik shows what you need to know while on a long motor trip.  The electronic map emphasizes details I don&amp;#x27;t need.&lt;p&gt;At a glance the paper map tells me whether a road is free limited-access, toll limited-access, multi-lane divided, two lanes but major, two lanes and minor, a country lane, or a dirt road.  Electronic map only tells me this if I zoom in on a satellite view, and it might even route me over a two-lane road to save five minutes on a two-hour trip when there&amp;#x27;s a much safer freeway that most drivers would prefer.&lt;p&gt;Paper map has little dotted lines for scenic routes.  Electronic map doesn&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;Mostly I&amp;#x27;m surprised the electronic maps don&amp;#x27;t have these things after all these years.  Maybe Apple will get them eventually.  Google is busy stuffing ads into its maps.</text></item><item><author>dljsjr</author><text>Anybody remember Triptiks from AAA? You&amp;#x27;d go to a AAA office or call them on the phone, tell them where you were going, and in return you&amp;#x27;d get a printed spiral top-bound pad with your trip broken down in to multiple legs, the roads&amp;#x2F;routes pre-highlighted, gas stops and prices estimated in, a list of sites for stopping off at, etc. All human curated and human annotated (the roads on your route were literally gone over by a person with a Highlighter). I&amp;#x27;m sure it was all pulled from some sort of centralized&amp;#x2F;normalized&amp;#x2F;standardized data source but the human touch was definitely there.&lt;p&gt;They were awesome. When we were growing up most big family trips were in the car because gas and hotels were just so much more affordable than flying an entire family &lt;i&gt;anywhere&lt;/i&gt;. I got to be the &amp;quot;navigator&amp;quot; on so many trips by helping family members read the Triptiks.&lt;p&gt;Apparently AAA still offers these, but they&amp;#x27;re generated digitally now via their app, and you can print them off if you want. But something about those human-built Triptiks were really really special.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>larrik</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been growing pretty dissatisfied with the state of electronic maps. Basic things that are usually either impossible or difficult while using Google Maps or Apple Maps for directions:&lt;p&gt;- What road am I on? What &lt;i&gt;town&lt;/i&gt; am I in?&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  - and other flavors of &amp;quot;where the hell am I, anyway?&amp;quot;

  - This is especially annoying when on the phone and the person is asking where you are, and the best you can answer is &amp;quot;Google says I&amp;#x27;m X minutes away&amp;quot;
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
- What road is this coming up next?&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  - instead it puts the name halfway along the road, which is out of view...

  - Some of the true nav systems (Garmin, etc) do this better.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Paper map sales are booming</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-paper-map-sales-are-booming-11674164824</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>massysett</author><text>In a lot of ways, electronic maps are still inferior to the Triptik.&lt;p&gt;Even the Rand McNally showed highway rest areas and picnic areas.  The Triptik also showed gas stations.  Electronic maps often lack this entirely, at least in easy form.&lt;p&gt;The Triptik shows what you need to know while on a long motor trip.  The electronic map emphasizes details I don&amp;#x27;t need.&lt;p&gt;At a glance the paper map tells me whether a road is free limited-access, toll limited-access, multi-lane divided, two lanes but major, two lanes and minor, a country lane, or a dirt road.  Electronic map only tells me this if I zoom in on a satellite view, and it might even route me over a two-lane road to save five minutes on a two-hour trip when there&amp;#x27;s a much safer freeway that most drivers would prefer.&lt;p&gt;Paper map has little dotted lines for scenic routes.  Electronic map doesn&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;Mostly I&amp;#x27;m surprised the electronic maps don&amp;#x27;t have these things after all these years.  Maybe Apple will get them eventually.  Google is busy stuffing ads into its maps.</text></item><item><author>dljsjr</author><text>Anybody remember Triptiks from AAA? You&amp;#x27;d go to a AAA office or call them on the phone, tell them where you were going, and in return you&amp;#x27;d get a printed spiral top-bound pad with your trip broken down in to multiple legs, the roads&amp;#x2F;routes pre-highlighted, gas stops and prices estimated in, a list of sites for stopping off at, etc. All human curated and human annotated (the roads on your route were literally gone over by a person with a Highlighter). I&amp;#x27;m sure it was all pulled from some sort of centralized&amp;#x2F;normalized&amp;#x2F;standardized data source but the human touch was definitely there.&lt;p&gt;They were awesome. When we were growing up most big family trips were in the car because gas and hotels were just so much more affordable than flying an entire family &lt;i&gt;anywhere&lt;/i&gt;. I got to be the &amp;quot;navigator&amp;quot; on so many trips by helping family members read the Triptiks.&lt;p&gt;Apparently AAA still offers these, but they&amp;#x27;re generated digitally now via their app, and you can print them off if you want. But something about those human-built Triptiks were really really special.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kortilla</author><text>&amp;gt;Mostly I&amp;#x27;m surprised the electronic maps don&amp;#x27;t have these things after all these years. Maybe Apple will get them eventually. Google is busy stuffing ads into its maps.&lt;p&gt;Yeah, google is always going to be trash for anything that doesn’t align well with advertising. Better to show a Starbucks than a rest area, etc.</text></comment>