I know that whenever I go on vacation I always like to buy lots of folding maps. What about you guys? My favorite ones are the ones made by RandMcnally and Universal. I also get the ones at the rest stops too. I have a big box full of folding maps in my house.
I keep one of Wichita and one of the state of Kansas in our van's door pocket, along with the toll rates for the KTA, for quick reference. Then, every few years, I clean out the ones I never use–like the one for Tennessee I'd picked up on our first anniversary, even though I've never been to Tennessee (I'd picked it up in Kentucky).
The backseat of my car is well littered with foldout maps from the past few years. The older ones I keep in my apartment so they don't get beat up.
I am in somewhat of an odd position with maps. Old maps fascinate me, and I do have some, but I really can't get too much of a collection going because I have no space for it. My huge collection of baseball cards already consumes more space than I really have - it's a good thing my parents are willing to let me store most of it at their house. If it weren't for that I'd need a bigger apartment.
When I've gone on a long distance trip, I've gotten official highway maps from the states I'm going through. Also, as I'm into vintage maps + atlases, I'll carry a vintage road atlas (usually Rand McNally). I used to have some vintage maps from mostly the 1930's-1950's, but they disappeared sometime after I moved from home. I've been able to replace a few of them, and I can only pray they're in somebody else's home. There are some Rand McNally road atlas & travel guides I would love to replace (1966 + 1967, and 1969 Rand McNally Pocket Road Atlas). In closing, I believe there will always be folding road maps + road atlases because I think I've heard there are some issues with those computerized electronic locaters in cars, just like typewriters are making a comeback because they don't have pop-up ads and what your typing doesn't get hacked. :coffee:
If your computer is getting pop-up ads and getting hacked then you are not maintaining it correctly.
Preference is for state official maps and non-folding atlas books. Not a fan of RMcN. Now that American Map is out, I've gone back to the National Geographic spiral-bound atlases. The state official road/highway maps are the situation where I don't mind having folding maps.
As my name states, I am an avid ACSC map collector. ACSC road maps have been around since the early 1900's and are about as accurate as a map can get. I know I can depend on their maps way more than anything posted on the internet. It is a fact that when the map databases were created for the internet, they used old outdated map sources along with more modern information. That is why we hear of horror stories of people getting lost or getting trapped in unwelcomed neighborhoods. The internet only updates their maps periodically and then at segments at the best. ACSC maps are always dated and have a road department to check the roads for accuracy. I have collected Thomas Guides in the past and have noticed the "chicken scratch" road network in the rural areas and always wondered if these lines ever existed since many never showed up on ACSC maps of the same time frame. Rand McNally and Gousha were pretty good but then again, they would show many unpopulated railroad "whistle stops" as towns so if you needed gas or a pit stop, then you were just out of luck.
My girl hates clutter so she through away my old maps from like 1983. I had a 1983 AAA from my childhood from FL that showed I-95 under contstruction in Palm Beach and Martin coutines with the "Breezewood" connection in Fort Pierce. I-75 still had construction going on south of Tampa. SR 84 was two lanes across Aligator Alley and no I-595. Orange County had a two lane US 441 and just SR-528 and SR 93 as the toll roads.
I still use maps and like to look at them. I remember reading what an Iron Butt Rally (11,000 miles in 11 days on motorcycles) rider said while having 3 GPS's on his motorcycle, "Don't throw away your paper maps".