Rand McNally gets lost on Route 66

[bugo]

If you're going to use a map with that kind of resolution to try to follow old US 66, you deserve what you get. We have an Internet now, it's far too easy to plan ahead and print out the turn by turn directions.

If you just want to drive the final alignment, the atlases are fine.

[Scott5114]

I need to find those tomes now that I'm living in my dad's old home. One of them had some pretty neat signage pictures, including a US 60/US 66 assembly from Oklahoma.

If you find that one, please do try to scan the pictures! I'm sure we'd all love to see them.

[US71]

Well, Route 66 technically hasn't existed for thirty years, so...

Also, Rand McNally is pretty awful in general, so yet another error from them is hardly surprising.

US 66, maybe, but there's still MO 66, KS 66 and OK 66 

[NE2]

Route 66 exists, just as the Great River Road and other tourist routes.

[US71]

Route 66 exists, just as the Great River Road and other tourist routes.

Yes, as Historic Byway.

[Kacie Jane]

If you're going to use a map with that kind of resolution to try to follow old US 66, you deserve what you get. We have an Internet now, it's far too easy to plan ahead and print out the turn by turn directions.

If you just want to drive the final alignment, the atlases are fine.

From what I've gathered from this conversation, and from the snippet NE2 posted, it seems they've put a shield in completely the wrong spot (that is, on a road that was not the final nor any alignment of US 66).  So no, in this regard, the atlases are not fine.

[frank gifford]

(I posted the original story "Rand McNally Gets Lost on Route 66")

An update:  Rand McNally's upcoming 2013 Road Atlas will continue to show a 60-mile error on Route 66 in some copies.  This extends across parts of Oklahoma and Missouri, deleting Kansas entirely.  

The company confirms some copies were printed before the correction was made as a "running change."  The mistake currently appears on Missouri maps in four versions of the Road Atlas, some printed in China, others in the USA.

Westbound travelers in Missouri are probably most affected...along with mom-and-pop businesses in Joplin MO, Galena and Baxter Springs KS, Commerce and Miami OK.

2013 Rand McNally Road Atlases, some with the mistake, will remain on sale for a year until the 2014 editions come out.

For the entire story including the map and a comparison to the correct route--see: www.rt66pix.com/blog.  

[empirestate]

Frank, thanks for the update and I applaud your efforts in getting RMcN to pull its act together! It's definitely apparent that you have a vested interest in promoting Route 66 tourism, which is great. Do you represent or support a particular Route 66 booster organization?

My reason for asking is that I wonder whether you, or such organization, have considered creating and distributing your own info or maps on Route 66 showing the correct route for travelers? For while I agree that RMcN should be held to account for its accuracy standards, it seems a bit dicey to rely on them to properly disseminate information for which you feel a certain personal responsibility. It's bit like complaining that Google Street View shows an outdated photo of your business before you renovated it, or even moved into the site at all...whenever I read those, my advice is always for the business owner to go ahead and take his own recent photos of the place and post them himself!

[frank gifford]

empirestate:  I own a photography website, www.rt66pix.com which offers some 700 Route 66 images as prints and merchandise.  It also has a Travel section.  Each state along the way has an association, but I don't represent any group.  It's more of a shared "community of interest."

The RMcN problem generally will affect first-time and casual travelers--and there are many of them--who have a little extra time and decide to venture off I-44 to sample the Mother Road.  They have only the Atlas...and they get lost.  And many people doing 66 are non-Americans.

There are various state publications available (along with signs and road stencils in places).  And there is an excellent @$20. book I've recommended here and elsewhere, the EZ66 Guide for Travelers (2nd Edtn) by Jerry McClanahan.  It's 200 pages or so with lots of detailed maps. Problem is first-timers won't have it...and may not have the other publications...only Rand McNally. 

The other, related, issue was the company's non-response to three detailed written letters.  Other posts here on AARoads provide important context on this!

For those interested, a good way to follow what's going on with Route 66 is through the website www.route66news.com.  This story has just run on that site, with some additional response from RMcN. 

[Bickendan]

This thread has me thinking.

The Alaska Highway and the various highways up in Alaska, Yukon and NWT have extensive information and coverage thanks to the Milepost.

A highway like US 66 should have a similar publication. In fact, you could argue that the old Trails (Lincoln Highway, National Pike, etc) should have similar publications.

[frank gifford]

Bickendan:  There is a good, and free, Route 66 on-line magazine that comes out every two months: www.66themotherroad.com.  The most-recent issue was March 1st.  There is also a conventional printed "Route 66 Magazine" available by subscription.   

So there's no shortage of information for those who have gotten beyond the "let's follow the Road Atlas" stage.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

This thread has me thinking.

The Alaska Highway and the various highways up in Alaska, Yukon and NWT have extensive information and coverage thanks to the Milepost.

A highway like US 66 should have a similar publication. In fact, you could argue that the old Trails (Lincoln Highway, National Pike, etc) should have similar publications.

The Lincoln Highway Association was reinstituted back in the mid 90s and has a quarterly newsletter they send out to their members (among other items and benefits they offer); http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/