AAA maps/out of date maps

[hbelkins]

(If there's a thread somewhere on AAA maps, please merge...)

I was in Lexington Tuesday for a doctor's appointment and decided to stop at the AAA office, since it was on my route, to pick up a few maps and TourBooks, and also buy an atlas because it had been several years since I'd had one.

Both the atlas page for Kentucky and the Kentucky map are very out of date. They show an old alignment of KY 30 in Laurel County that has been replaced with a new alignment for at least 15 years. They never made the change when the westernmost end of KY 30 was realigned to end at the Hal Rogers Parkway instead of US 25.

How do major maps fail to pick up these changes?

[ColossalBlocks]

Old Insurance company-issued atlases? Didn't know they were still in print.

[hbelkins]

Old Insurance company-issued atlases? Didn't know they were still in print.

When I went in to buy the AAA atlas, I was actually a bit shocked that they're selling a 2017 version and not 2018 like Rand McNally. 

[chays]

(If there's a thread somewhere on AAA maps, please merge...)

I was in Lexington Tuesday for a doctor's appointment and decided to stop at the AAA office, since it was on my route, to pick up a few maps and TourBooks, and also buy an atlas because it had been several years since I'd had one.

Both the atlas page for Kentucky and the Kentucky map are very out of date. They show an old alignment of KY 30 in Laurel County that has been replaced with a new alignment for at least 15 years. They never made the change when the westernmost end of KY 30 was realigned to end at the Hal Rogers Parkway instead of US 25.

How do major maps fail to pick up these changes?

I'm actually a cartographer for AAA.  While I'm not responsible for Kentucky, I'll let the appropriate person know.

[sparker]

(If there's a thread somewhere on AAA maps, please merge...)

I was in Lexington Tuesday for a doctor's appointment and decided to stop at the AAA office, since it was on my route, to pick up a few maps and TourBooks, and also buy an atlas because it had been several years since I'd had one.

Both the atlas page for Kentucky and the Kentucky map are very out of date. They show an old alignment of KY 30 in Laurel County that has been replaced with a new alignment for at least 15 years. They never made the change when the westernmost end of KY 30 was realigned to end at the Hal Rogers Parkway instead of US 25.

How do major maps fail to pick up these changes?

I'm actually a cartographer for AAA.  While I'm not responsible for Kentucky, I'll let the appropriate person know.

IIRC, the AAA atlases aren't released until the last quarter of the calendar year prior to the date on the cover (unlike their more widely-distributed competition); sometimes the local CSAA offices don't get stocked until Thanksgiving! 

[Brian556]

TxDOT failed to show the SH 121 Lewisville bypass on their free maps for several years after it was opened

[briantroutman]

I don't know if this is relevant, but...

While I was working at various PA AAA clubs in the early to mid 2000s, the state and city series sheet maps were in the process of being transitioned from the traditional style of AAA cartography to a new, updated style–and the new maps' covers said something like "New Digital Map!" . I assume this referred to a back-end change as AAA shifted from older mapmaking techniques to essentially a digital vector image file that was then printed directly.

Anyway, I noticed that even as various state maps were released with the "new digital map"  imagery, the bound AAA atlas continued to use the older style imagery. And unless I'm mistaken, those old-style state maps were continuing to be updated, indicating that AAA was maintaining and updating two separate sets of imagery: traditional and digital. The most recent AAA atlas I saw still had the old style imagery, but that was a number of years ago. I don't know if they ever transitioned it over to digital. If AAA is still maintaining the catalog of traditionally produced map imagery, perhaps they've become somewhat lax in maintaining that vs. the digital imagery. As recently as a year ago, I received new regional maps made from the old style cartography.

Below is a side-by-side comparison of the two styles–the Harrisburg/Washington map is the old style and the Atlanta map is new. Notice the difference in typefaces and that the new maps lack a center line on freeways. (The "old"  map is a regional one, so the scale is different, and some details like exit numbers are missing.)

[epzik8]

Failure to contact the authorities?

[hbelkins]

I'm actually a cartographer for AAA.  While I'm not responsible for Kentucky, I'll let the appropriate person know.

Check your private messages.