Paper Maps going way of public Telephone

[kphoger]

I use Google Maps a lot.  OK, I'll just be honest:  I'm a Google Maps junkie.  Not only do I often print out the Google map when I'm going to a new town, I will sometimes even import the map to MSpaint and edit it to my own liking.  I can then add pins and intermediate distances just like a normal road atlas, except at the scale that I need.  Other times, I will display Google Maps on one monitor and MSpaint on the other monitor (I have a split screen at work), and freehand a map.

[huskeroadgeek]

I use Google Maps a lot.  OK, I'll just be honest:  I'm a Google Maps junkie.  Not only do I often print out the Google map when I'm going to a new town, I will sometimes even import the map to MSpaint and edit it to my own liking.  I can then add pins and intermediate distances just like a normal road atlas, except at the scale that I need.  Other times, I will display Google Maps on one monitor and MSpaint on the other monitor (I have a split screen at work), and freehand a map.

I use Google Maps all the time too. Hardly a day goes by without using it. But I usually use it in conjunction with a paper map or atlas. I like the close up views that Google Maps offers compared with the wide perspective that a paper map offers.

[hbelkins]

From the comments posted here, I'm getting the impression that when most of you hear GPS, you think of the commonly available navigation units such as Garmin or TomTom.  While Garmins and TomToms are indeed GPS units, GPS is a much broader category than that.  Any piece of gear that can receive and decode the signals sent by the GPS satellites is, technically speaking, a GPS unit.  This includes iPads and most recent smartphones.  If you have a smartphone less than a few years old (especially one running Android or an iPhone newer than the "3") or an iPad, then you have a GPS unit.

Also, I've discovered, the 4th generation iPod Touch.

[realjd]

From the comments posted here, I'm getting the impression that when most of you hear GPS, you think of the commonly available navigation units such as Garmin or TomTom.  While Garmins and TomToms are indeed GPS units, GPS is a much broader category than that.  Any piece of gear that can receive and decode the signals sent by the GPS satellites is, technically speaking, a GPS unit.  This includes iPads and most recent smartphones.  If you have a smartphone less than a few years old (especially one running Android or an iPhone newer than the "3") or an iPad, then you have a GPS unit.

I doubt anyone here thinks that my Garmin eTrex is a affront to road atlases any more than a Garmin G2000 is causing the decline of modern aviation.

[Tom]

This is sad. I'm very much old-school when it comes to this kinda stuff. I love using paper maps and refuse to buy a GPS unit.

When I was on a plane ride a few months ago, I was looking at my large road atlas just reading maps for fun of different U.S. states. A woman sitting next to me on the plane, who had coincidentally been employed at Rand McNally, seemed to be impressed by the fact that I was reading an actual atlas.

It is a sad state of affairs that so many people don't know how to read maps anymore. They just blindly follow GPS units and don't have a grasp of the bigger picture with regard to where they are going.  

As the article says, however, plenty of people still like to hold a map or atlas in their hands, so I believe paper road maps will always be available for those who want them.  Same thing with books.