2014 Rand McNally Road Atlas

[hbelkins]

Got two today at Walmart in Lexington -- the regular version and I also got the large-scale version with spiral binding. Haven't looked it over yet.

[bob7374]

Got my 2014/90th Anniversary atlas at the local Barnes and Noble a couple weeks ago. For NC they have updated their maps to include a completed I-74 freeway from High Point to US 220, though its only labeled as I-74 on the Greensboro/Winston-Salem inset, and then only east of I-85. No new I-73 shields for the parts being currently updated to interstate status. They still have the Rockingham-Hamlet Bypass labeled as I-74. Only a couple old exit numbers appear along the paths of either I-73 or I-74, nor for I-795. They have the Triangle Expressway depicted as a toll road and as NC 540 all the way to to its current end at Holly Springs. Curiously, on the Wilmington inset they now have I-140 on both sides of I-40 with US 17, but not on the state map. The Sanford Bypass is shown extended to NC 42 with a stub north of US 1 not completed to US 421, as it is currently. None of the current bypass projects under construction are depicted, except for what remains to be completed for I-485 around Charlotte.

If anyone has any other NC items to check, or questions about other states, let me know.

[Duke87]

So they have actually bothered to update the map data then. Good. I recall a complaint in the past couple years being a lack of that. Maybe I'll pick one up at some point then since my current edition is the 2011.

Now for a laugh: I was in a Rite Aid off in an odd corner of Brooklyn this past week that still had the 2009 edition sitting on the rack for sale.

[The High Plains Traveler]

They finally restored the Colorado Metropolitan Districts, so i have a home again. No need to account for the 90,000 people in Highlands Ranch south of Denver, not to mention the 30,000 people who live by me, who have been missing since the format change. I chose not to buy because the major changes appear to be in the east, and I'm not really following the saga of I-73.

[Desert Man]

Had with me on my computer table is the 2013 RMcN atlas...I happen to like it, got it from Wal-mart. But these days more people use googlemaps or Mapquest to look at road maps, while some of us prefer the ink-and-paper maps, a lost art we can't afford to lose. I asked my wife who works at Target if the store has the 2014 atlas and she finds out this weekend (her B-day is tomorrow)  

[PHLBOS]

Now for a laugh: I was in a Rite Aid off in an odd corner of Brooklyn this past week that still had the 2009 edition sitting on the rack for sale.

Was the selling price reduced at all?

[Bickendan]

Well well well... OR 99W's still alive and well along N Interstate Ave according to 2014... but US 30 BYP is dead and non-existent.

Also, the cartography for the city insets is sloppy.

[apjung]

I-49 in Louisiana North of Shreveport shown as complete and labeled as I-49. Arkansas link to the Louisiana border shown as under construction.

I-69 in Indiana shown as complete from I-64 to US 231 and under construction from US 231 to Bloomington.

I will wait for the 2015 edition since I-2, I-69C and I-69E are not on the 2014 and neither are the I-69 sections in Houston.

[Henry]

I will wait for the 2015 edition since I-2, I-69C and I-69E are not on the 2014 and neither are the I-69 sections in Houston.

Not a bad idea, if only because those designations caught a lot of people off-guard.

[agentsteel53]

I will wait for the 2015 edition since I-2, I-69C and I-69E are not on the 2014 and neither are the I-69 sections in Houston.

Not a bad idea, if only because those designations caught a lot of people off-guard.

yes, I am absolutely astonished we went from "absolutely no mention of I-2 outside of the Fictional forums" to "signed in the field" in less than a month.

[exit322]

I will wait for the 2015 edition since I-2, I-69C and I-69E are not on the 2014 and neither are the I-69 sections in Houston.

Not a bad idea, if only because those designations caught a lot of people off-guard.

yes, I am absolutely astonished we went from "absolutely no mention of I-2 outside of the Fictional forums" to "signed in the field" in less than a month.

Yeah, they did not screw around on that one, by any stretch.

[shadyjay]

Has anyone found the 2014 atlas in their local Walmarts recently?  I've been to 3 in the past 5 days in 3 different states and NOTHING.... not even the 2013 version.  I did see the full price version in a bookstore in Freeport, ME and just had time for a quick glance.  I did notice that one of the tolls is no longer shown on the Niagara Thruway in Buffalo, NY and some rest area icons that were gone from VT in 2013 are now back.  Also VT 279 is shown as completed around Bennington's east side.  Hope to get my own copy soon.  A few more Walmarts to check!

[Truvelo]

I was looking for one last month and went into several Walmarts and found nothing. I eventually bought a Kappa Map atlas from a gas station.

[hbelkins]

Has anyone found the 2014 atlas in their local Walmarts recently?  I've been to 3 in the past 5 days in 3 different states and NOTHING.... not even the 2013 version.  I did see the full price version in a bookstore in Freeport, ME and just had time for a quick glance.  I did notice that one of the tolls is no longer shown on the Niagara Thruway in Buffalo, NY and some rest area icons that were gone from VT in 2013 are now back.  Also VT 279 is shown as completed around Bennington's east side.  Hope to get my own copy soon.  A few more Walmarts to check!

I'm pretty much seeing the 2014 at Walmart now, but I did see the 2013 version still prominently displayed at the Walmart in Mason, WV on Monday when I stopped there on my way home.

[bugo]

I've had my Walmart version for at least 2 months now.

[shadyjay]

I now own the 2014 version, finding it at a Walmart in CT.  It took me going to 6 Walmarts in 4 states to track it down!

[vtk]

The last couple times I looked, I could only find the large print edition.  Do not want.

[Truvelo]

This proves there's still demand for old fashioned printed atlases if they've sold out.

[formulanone]

The last couple times I looked, I could only find the large print edition.  Do not want.

I always fool myself into believing that "large print" = more detail, when it rarely is.

Unless one likes to make their own corrections in ink.

[exit322]

I do like the large-print atlas, in that it is usually spiral bound, and is a little easier to read.  But yeah, it's the same atlas.

[vtk]

Wait, so the large-print version has just as much detail as regular?

Crap.  I want one that's as large as the large-print version overall, but mas more and smaller details.

[Kacie Jane]

Other relatively major flaw of the large-scale compared to the regular atlas is the absence of Canada and Mexico.

[Brandon]

Other relatively major flaw of the large-scale compared to the regular atlas is the absence of Canada and Mexico.

The Mexico map (and Puerto Rico map for that matter), IMHO, is always a flaw, even in the standard edition.  Would it kill RMcN to place Puerto Rico after Pennsylvania with a real map, and provide Mexico with a better detailed map?

[Bickendan]

Apparently, as would continuing to publish the Thomas Guides, seeing as they've discontinued them.

[triplemultiplex]

I thumbed through one in a store recently and noticed that RandMac has finally corrected an error that I've been observing for decades.  WI 17 south of Rhinelander, WI (US 8 east of US 51) has always been erroneously shown as four-lane divided south out of that city.  It even carried over when they updated their linework on most of their maps a couple years ago.  This little error has always annoyed me because that piece of WI 17 has never been 4 lanes or even been proposed as 4 lanes; yet there it was year after year in the ol' RMcN.

Now if they can get around to correctly showing US 2 in Superior (without a freeway going all the way to WI 35 ending at a non-existent interchange) I'll be ecstatic.