Do you need directions to get around parts of your own area?

[Buffaboy]

For example, I find South Buffalo a very confusing place to get around if I'm trying to find a side street.

[signalman]

I don't need directions per se, but I have consulted maps if I'm not sure where the road in question exactly is.  I've also used maps to plan the best route for me to take to a given location.  Determining factors include, but are not limited to my origin, desired routing to avoid known congested areas, avoidance of dangerous merges/weaves.

[Flint1979]

I don't need directions to get around here. I can pretty much get around anywhere in eastern Michigan without directions however I do use them just to see if there is a better route due to traffic or construction or something like that.

Like for example if I was driving between Saginaw and Flint and there was an accident on I-75 that was backing traffic up enough to you wanting to avoid the area then there are a couple of other options you have and I'd use Google Maps to find out. I-75 though is eight lanes for 23 miles between Saginaw and Flint, it goes back to six lanes south of I-475 and north of the Hess Road overpass in Saginaw County about a mile south of the M-46 interchange.

[Buffaboy]

By directions I mean when looking for a side street, like Sandy Shores Lane in a residential subdivision, or a side street in a city. Not arterial routes per se.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

For the life of me I can never remember 100% how to get to my aunt's house in South St. Paul despite generally going there 2-3 times a year. I always have to check a map to make sure I'm on the right path once I leave US 52.

[Flint1979]

I'm pretty good at directions and knowing where I'm at. I have successfully rat ran many incidents where I would have otherwise been held up. My best rat run to date was probably the time I was traveling south on M-13 and noticed the train lights go on and a train about to cross at the crossing where M-13 intersects Potter Street just north of downtown Saginaw. When I saw the lights go on and the train coming I went and made a left on 1st Street which turns into Kirk Street about a block later, took it all the way to 5th Avenue, made a right, then made a right on Carroll, took that to Wadsworth and I was back at M-13, the train was still crossing M-13 so I would have been still back there waiting for the train.

[webny99]

This should be interesting!

I can easily navigate to any major destination, arterial, or freeway, within say 40 miles. I am a very visual learner, so any specific place I've been to a few times, I'll probably remember the details of how to get there from past observation.

Where it gets a little bit more interesting is in terms of local subdivisions or neighborhoods. On the east side of the metro (where I live), I pretty much am familiar with the general layout of all the neighborhoods. I have friends and family spread across a vast swath of the area, so I would never truly be "lost". Random subdivisional street names like "Knightsbridge Way" and "Millford Crossing" would not throw me off in my home territory - I'd still know exactly what main road they connected to and how to get there.

In the City of Rochester, though, or west of the city... yikes. I would not be able to use street name recognition for local streets. I know most of the through routes and could find my way from A to B using those, but put me in the middle of an inner city neighborhood with one-way streets and I wouldn't do so well 

[jeffandnicole]

There's an occasional street I haven't heard of, or maybe something new opened up that I didn't realize, or we have those streets that change names or have odd names that everyone calls by different names, but otherwise I can easily get around my town, and most of my county for that matter, without directions.

[1995hoo]

For me, the answer is generally no unless I'm going to an unfamiliar address in Arlington County. Arlington has a street-naming system that results in there being multiple disconnected streets of the same name (I think I once determined that there are five Buchanan Streets, for example), so in the rare case when I'm going to that sort of location, I'll need directions from the sat-nav.

(If I'm going to someone else's house I might sometimes ask them which route into or out of their neighborhood is the better option if I'm not already sure, but to me that's not the same as needing directions.)

[PHLBOS]

Unless it's an obscure street that I typically don't use/pass by often, no.

[Hurricane Rex]

No except for certain running routes or during rush hour. This statement goes for the metro area west of I-5 in Portland. Rest just a quick map look will be fine.

LG-TP260

[ET21]

Not really, unless it's a part I've never driven too. I generally know the major routes, smaller streets is where I would pull out the maps

[jflick99]

I can get around JOCO with ease, but I would need a map to get around neighborhoods I'm unfamiliar with. I can get around the rest of the KC metro's arterials fairly easily, as long as it's south of the river. I don't find myself north of the Missouri River enough to be able to find my way on my own.

[bzakharin]

Yes, absolutely. I can only travel without directions (or at least looking at a map ahead of time) on routes that I frequent (or used to frequent) more than once a month. That means I can get lost in my own neighborhood if I somehow end up not on one of the approximately 8 roads I frequent (all the roads in my neighborhood curve unexpectedly and end at random points). The exception is the freeways and divided highways. I can navigate between them without looking anything up within my general area.

[sparker]

Generally no.  If given an address, I Google it before taking off; and for backup I keep AAA maps covering all the streets in the greater Bay Area (updated as needed) in the side-pockets of both vehicles.  Once I've been somewhere, I tend to remember how to get there.  This comes in handy when doing on-site consultation or work for clients.