2016 Rand McNally Road Atlas

[02 Park Ave]

How does one go about obtaining the RouteMaster atlas?  The last time I tried to order it from Amazon.ca it couldn't be shipped to the United States.

[Bickendan]

Most likely the easiest way is to have friends in Canada you can ship it to who then will send it to you.

[vdeane]

If you email them on their site they can send it.

[Kniwt]

My iPad RMcN app just auto-updated to the 2016 atlas, again this year for free. I guess I need to go make an extended visit to the toilet to scan for changes.

ETA: Yes, I-41 is there.

[SSOWorld]

My iPad RMcN app just auto-updated to the 2016 atlas, again this year for free. I guess I need to go make an extended visit to the toilet to scan for changes.

ETA: Yes, I-41 is there.

WITH US 41 marked alongside...

[OCGuy81]

My iPad RMcN app just auto-updated to the 2016 atlas, again this year for free. I guess I need to go make an extended visit to the toilet to scan for changes.

ETA: Yes, I-41 is there.

WITH US 41 marked alongside...

That's cool! Any chance they show WI 175 along the Stadium Freeway yet?  Not sure if that one is "official" yet, but if US 41 is showing along the new alignment...

quote fix --sso

[SSOWorld]

My iPad RMcN app just auto-updated to the 2016 atlas, again this year for free. I guess I need to go make an extended visit to the toilet to scan for changes.

ETA: Yes, I-41 is there.

WITH US 41 marked alongside...

That's cool! Any chance they show WI 175 along the Stadium Freeway yet?  Not sure if that one is "official" yet, but if US 41 is showing along the new alignment...

quote fix --sso

Yes

[triplemultiplex]

I'm always most interested to see if RandMac does any layout changes from the previous edition.  New insets are fun, but the real good stuff is when they give a state more room to show it at a reasonable scale.

In my opinion, a good atlas should have a two-page layout for every state that's not one of the tiny, east coast ones.
And every city of at least 100,000 should appear on an inset map, for sure.

Problem is, the use of digital maps means there is no incentive to change the layout.  That costs money and paper maps are bringing in less and less every year, so they need to produce it as cheaply as possible.  Companies like RandMac are recycling the same layout with cartography that's been updated as hastily as possible with less quality control so they can sell it for only 11 bucks.

Wouldn't it be great if one of these companies would create for us map nerds and road geeks a "premium" atlas?  Something that's had all the bullshit errors that have plagued us for decades removed; layouts worked so you can actually see stuff in place like Louisiana; as many insets as they can cram in...  Give it a good binding that's not going to fall apart in a year and include a protective cover to keep the dog-earring to a minimum.
I'd gladly shell out fifty bucks for something like that.

I know there are hard cover atlases out there, but the ones I've seen have the same shitty cartography as the cheapo models.
I'd make a good one myself; I have the skills and the desire; but there isn't enough time or any financial upside to make it worthwhile.
No, I'm afraid we're stuck with mediocre atlases forever.

[nexus73]

No, I'm afraid we're stuck with mediocre atlases forever.

Oh to have Gousha's maps back again.  They were more readable to my eyes.  I do like the idea of a premium grade atlas too.

Rick

[bandit957]

If there's one state in the U.S. and A. that needs better coverage, it might be Louisiana.

[OCGuy81]

I like the idea, triplemultiplex!  I'd pay for a premium atlas as well.

[SimMoonXP]

Heard from Rand McNally from facebook. The update details are 6 new city and park inset maps: Canada's Banff, Kootenay, Glacier, and Yoho National Parks, 4 new inset maps in Texas - Abilene, Bryan/College Station, Killeen, and Tyler; and a new inset map reflecting the fast-growing Tri-Cities metro area in Washington state.

[Brandon]

If there's one state in the U.S. and A. that needs better coverage, it might be Louisiana.

Both that one and Maine could each use two pages.  One page, front-to-front for each?  Come on, RMcN!

[triplemultiplex]

Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Idaho, New Mexico, both Dakotas and Wyoming should all be on two pages.
Florida should be on a pair of two-page layouts like Pennsylvania or Ohio.

And there are so many large cities that deserve most-of-the-page coverages and scales.
Jacksonville, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Charlotte... I could go on.

[02 Park Ave]

American Map Co. Made the best maps and atlases.  Too bad they are history.

[OCGuy81]

Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Idaho, New Mexico, both Dakotas and Wyoming should all be on two pages.
Florida should be on a pair of two-page layouts like Pennsylvania or Ohio.

And there are so many large cities that deserve most-of-the-page coverages and scales.
Jacksonville, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Charlotte... I could go on.

I think Austin and San Antonio could be expanded too, especially Austin.

Not only that, I think some of the cities you mentioned like Jacksonville and Charlotte are lacking the City Center insets, at least my 2015 edition does. 

[Bickendan]

American Map Co. Made the best maps and atlases.  Too bad they are history.

Mmm, I dunno. Maybe for the US scale... but on the regional scale, I'd say Thomas Brothers before RMN started nerfing them to the ground. I'm referring to TBM's early 2000's editions of their PNW and California atlases, and their Thomas Guides of the same time where the index maps were still useful for regional/county navigation because they included the arterial and secondary roads.

[hbelkins]

My Rand McNally iPad app got updated today. I guess I could take a look at it to see what's new. I'll probably buy one when it hits Walmart.

[Kniwt]

Is the iPad version missing a significant piece of California? I ask because, from everything I can see in my 2016, much of the eastern Sierra from Bishop northward along US 395 isn't there. It should be on the Northern California page, but it's cropped north-south through the state line at Lake Tahoe, missing everything to the east of there. (A tiny piece of it is visible on the Nevada page.)

I looked on all six of the California pages and didn't find it. Am I missing something?

[iowahighways]

I looked through a copy of the 2016 atlas at Barnes & Noble today, but didn't buy it yet.

As far as Iowa is concerned, they include the newly-relocated US 34 west of I-29, but they still show IA/NE 370 east of US 75.

There is a goof in the Des Moines inset: They include the Veterans Parkway (formerly Southwest Connector) between IA 5 and IA 28 as a four-lane divided highway. Although the ROW is there for four lanes, only two lanes were built north of Army Post Road. (This street will someday connect I-35 with downtown Des Moines.)

[US 41]

Last weekend Barnes and Noble didn't have it yet (in Bloomington, IN). I'm going to go back this weekend to look for it again now that it has been confirmed some have it now (maybe the one in Plainfield this time).

[bob7374]

The 2016 version has made it to the greater Boston area Barnes and Nobles. Something to watch out for, a couple of the standard edition paperback atlases I looked through had some production errors where pages had not been cut correctly and had been bent back under proceeding pages, making half of a map page unavailable. This was the case for the western part of NC in one of atlases I was looking at.

Speaking of NC, the 2016 city insets do show where new interstates are being constructed-Fayetteville, Greensboro, Wilmington (though where's the Winston-Salem construction?), they have added exit numbers for I-73 south of Greensboro on the state map, but not for I-74. They do show I-485 complete around Charlotte, unlike the official state map, but they also show the US 70 Goldsboro Bypass as complete. They still have I-74 on the Rockingham Bypass though and I-440 has made a comeback in the city inset along the I-40 stretch of the Raleigh Beltline (which they do show as under construction). They also have the Fayetteville Loop still marked as I-295.

The store had both the standard atlas (with or without the plastic cover) along with the ring bound Deluxe and large text versions. The latter two were not as updated as the standard edition, for example, there was no reference to I-41 in the Wisconsin maps in either of them.

[oscar]

The store had both the standard atlas (with or without the plastic cover) along with the ring bound Deluxe and large text versions. The latter two were not as updated as the standard edition, for example, there was no reference to I-41 in the Wisconsin maps in either of them.

If you have a previous edition with a cover, you can probably move the cover to the new edition. I've usually been able to do that (don't know about 2016, I'm waiting for the Wal-Mart edition), though sometimes I had to clip the corners of the new edition's cover or do other minor trims.

[Roadrunner75]

They still haven't made it to my local Target, but there are a whole bunch of 2014 editions there.  I'm not ready to pay BN prices, especially since I buy a couple for the cars and bathroom.  The clerks think I'm nuts ("They still make those???", "All for you?")

[mwb1848]

As a kid, every year for Christmas I would ask my grandmother for one thing: the latest Rand McNally atlas. Nothing more, nothing less. It became our standing thing. There came a point where she insisted that I surely must have outgrown it and, despite many protestations, she decided I needed something more grand. To this day, I still tell her it's what I want and she still tells me, surely, I want something more. I'm 31; she's 92. It seems that ship has sailed.