2014 Rand McNally Road Atlas

[vtk]

I broke down and bought the 14.  I was able to compare the standard, large print, and easy reading versions.  The large print has the same maps as standard, but on twice as many same-sized pages.  The easy-reading version has reduced detail and a smaller overall size.  I bought the standard.

Several errors persist which I've noted in previous versions.  Some have been fixed.  There are some new errors I hadn't noticed before.

The Nelsonville Bypass is shown as complete (it opens next month), though for some reason RMcN shows a short non-freeway section of US 33 between the Logan and Nelsonville sections. 

There's a green highlight on I-71 north of Columbus, representing the widening project that started last year and is nearly complete.  Two more projects have started this year south of that one.  Considering this is ostensibly next year's atlas, the highlight should cover the extents of the more recent projects, not the one that's now wrapping up.

Every map has a Smart Tag, which is like a QR code except it only stores an index, and the destination page has to be looked up from a database run by Microsoft. I think I heard MS has given up promoting the scheme.  Who knows how long it will continue to provide the Smart Tag lookup service...

[hbelkins]

The Nelsonville Bypass is shown as complete (it opens next month), though for some reason RMcN shows a short non-freeway section of US 33 between the Logan and Nelsonville sections. 

Well, since the atlas is for 2014, and the road will be open in 2014, that's not an error.

[vtk]

The Nelsonville Bypass is shown as complete (it opens next month), though for some reason RMcN shows a short non-freeway section of US 33 between the Logan and Nelsonville sections. 

Well, since the atlas is for 2014, and the road will be open in 2014, that's not an error.

The full bypass being shown is indeed not an error, but a surprise, as it's not one of the high-profile new Interstates.  The short non-freeway section is an error, though; US 33 will be full freeway through both Logan and Nelsonville with no gap.  Furthermore, the section they show as non-freeway has in fact been up to freeway standards for a very long time.

[agentsteel53]

Well, since the atlas is for 2014, and the road will be open in 2014, that's not an error.

then it should be sold in 2013 with a brown wrapper that says "do not open 'til 2014".

[Brandon]

The Nelsonville Bypass is shown as complete (it opens next month), though for some reason RMcN shows a short non-freeway section of US 33 between the Logan and Nelsonville sections. 

Well, since the atlas is for 2014, and the road will be open in 2014, that's not an error.

In other words, it's not a bug, it's a feature.

[Aerobird]

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.

Maybe that was one of the "gotchas" they deliberately put in so they can tell when somebody's copied their map?