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Which atlas company was better?

Started by CapeCodder, October 17, 2018, 10:12:15 PM

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Stephane Dumas

No mention of MapArt? Their local roads atlas of main metros areas like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal was cool.


Beltway

Quote from: sparker on October 21, 2018, 01:21:54 AM
Always liked the old Gousha methods of delineating road surfaces, city/town populations, county seats, and interim mileage.  But I always found McNally to be more prompt with regards to showing new facilities and alignments. 

That is basically what the friend believed about the two.  Part of why I resisted was because about 1985 in their annual rating of cities, McNally declared Pittsburgh to be "America's most livable city".  That made me feel like puking all over the floor and it was many years before I trusted McNally again about anything, or wanted buy their atlas.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

Rothman

Quote from: Beltway on October 21, 2018, 04:54:45 PM
Quote from: sparker on October 21, 2018, 01:21:54 AM
Always liked the old Gousha methods of delineating road surfaces, city/town populations, county seats, and interim mileage.  But I always found McNally to be more prompt with regards to showing new facilities and alignments. 

That is basically what the friend believed about the two.  Part of why I resisted was because about 1985 in their annual rating of cities, McNally declared Pittsburgh to be "America's most livable city".  That made me feel like puking all over the floor and it was many years before I trusted McNally again about anything, or wanted buy their atlas.
That does sound like a declaration a couple of years too early for Pittsburgh's rennaisance, but it's a great city now.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

Beltway

#28
Quote from: Rothman on October 22, 2018, 06:12:22 AM
Quote from: Beltway on October 21, 2018, 04:54:45 PM
That is basically what the friend believed about the two.  Part of why I resisted was because about 1985 in their annual rating of cities, McNally declared Pittsburgh to be "America's most livable city".  That made me feel like puking all over the floor and it was many years before I trusted McNally again about anything, or wanted buy their atlas.
That does sound like a declaration a couple of years too early for Pittsburgh's rennaisance, but it's a great city now.

It's a fairly decent city but IMHO has never been #1 or anywhere near that.  Directly on the subject of roads and highways, while there are some interesting features, overall the road system is difficult and substandard, thru then and true today.  Transit is good but about average compared to the many other U.S. cities that have at least several passenger rail transit lines.

The city has seen massive declines in population since 1950.  C'mon.
1950  676,806
1960  604,332  −10.7%
1970  520,117  −13.9%
1980  423,938  −18.5%
1990  369,879  −12.8%
2000  334,563  −9.5%
2010  305,704  −8.6%
2017  302,407  −1.1%


http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

webny99

Quote from: Beltway on October 22, 2018, 06:16:27 AM
Quote from: Rothman on October 22, 2018, 06:12:22 AM
Quote from: Beltway on October 21, 2018, 04:54:45 PM
That is basically what the friend believed about the two.  Part of why I resisted was because about 1985 in their annual rating of cities, McNally declared Pittsburgh to be "America's most livable city".  That made me feel like puking all over the floor and it was many years before I trusted McNally again about anything, or wanted buy their atlas.
That does sound like a declaration a couple of years too early for Pittsburgh's rennaisance, but it's a great city now.
It's a fairly decent city but IMHO has never been #1 or anywhere near that.  Directly on the subject of roads and highways, while there are some interesting features, overall the road system is difficult and substandard, thru then and true today.  Transit is good but about average compared to the many other U.S. cities that have at least several passenger rail transit lines.

The city has seen massive declines in population since 1950.  C'mon.

Keep in mind, population declines tend to lower prices for housing, among other things. Hence making a city more "livable", i.e. easier to survive with less money. No, Pittsburgh may not be as desirable as San Fran or LA, but it is certainly more livable if you have the average US income.

Beltway

Quote from: webny99 on October 22, 2018, 09:37:42 AM
Quote from: Beltway on October 22, 2018, 06:16:27 AM
The city has seen massive declines in population since 1950. 
Keep in mind, population declines tend to lower prices for housing, among other things. Hence making a city more "livable", i.e. easier to survive with less money. No, Pittsburgh may not be as desirable as San Fran or LA, but it is certainly more livable if you have the average US income.

"Livable" is a rather fuzzy concept.  Just because a place has lower cost of living (and there are plenty of places that do), doesn't mean that someone wants to "live" there.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

thefraze_1020

As a long time-collector of road maps, and having over around 4000 in my collection (one dating to 1906), I've seen a lot of maps. I've consistently found Gousha to be the best maps. Unlike Rand McNally, they never really completely overhauled their cartography. They just made tweaks to fonts, symbols and colors over the years. Rand McNally a few times completely re-did their cartography (most notably around 1966-1968). General Drafting maps looked exactly the same over the years, but I have found they are not as easy to read as Gousha maps. Rand McNally has had some good cartography and some crummy cartography. In my opinion at least, their best years were the late 1950's and early 1960's. When they re-did everything in the mid-late 1960's, the maps lost a lot of detail, but the cartography was still decent. Rand McNally did another overhaul in the late 1990's, and since, their maps look very sloppy and lazy.

In the Pacific Northwest, a few local companies that were good back in the day were Metsker's, Pittmon, and Kroll. Pittmon and Kroll are still around, but Metsker's (at least the map-making part of the company) folded in the late 1990's. All three companies' maps were/ are very detailed, but Metsker's were somewhat hard to read. Also, the problem with Metsker's is that they weren't always updated when they needed to be, so it would be common to see a highway on a Metsker map that no longer existed. Plus, Metsker's were very rarely dated, so from a collecting standpoint, Metsker's are very hard to date.

Another local one that has great cartography was Northwest Mapping Service, based in Seattle. I have not seen a map made by them after the mid-1970's. Their maps were very clean and easy to read, and they had contracts with the State of Washington, Auto Club of Washington, and various small tourist agencies/ chambers of commerce.

Finally for auto clubs, AAA maps are OK. The cartography currently used was mostly phased-in in the late 1990's- early 2000's. The previous style I think was much better, and was introduced circa-1970. I would argue that the maps made by both California State Automobile Association and Auto Club of Southern California in the past were some of the best maps one could get their hands on. It seems to me that the detail of those maps is unmatched by any other cartographer.
Alright, this is how it's gonna be!

Henry

Say what you want about Rand McNally, but to me, their atlases always provided the most bang for the buck. I've been a fan of theirs since childhood, and whenever I get a new atlas, I always make sure to track the changes that have occurred since the last time I bought one.
Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!

CapeCodder

Found another "mom and pop" map company: Geographia. Apparently they're out of NYC/NJ.

Bickendan


kphoger

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