NAVIGATION: Network Guided

BY: MJ + PJ

This post is about utilizing the mobile network and mobile devices for navigation during traveling. Meaning you have access to network data and GPS and phone services as you move.

Driving into the greater Los Angeles area, in which we had not driven for almost a decade, we were pleasantly surprised by the ease of reaching our destination. This was during late Friday afternoon traffic coming from Las Vegas – an area with full mobile network coverage. 

Back in the day, being the mid 2000’s, our navigation in the region was based on experience and the Thomas Guide Street Index. The radio was useful at times, but often as a consequence of being stuck in traffic rather than having the foresight to check freeway conditions. A morning TV report gave you some idea… but that wasn’t much use once you left your home. Needless to say, arriving late and mildly frustrated was fairly common but not a deterrent to going places.

Enter Google Maps in the period of our L.A. absence, and it’s a whole different game. Knowing the freeways, we were a bit perplexed to be directed to the Pasadena Freeway and then south on the 605. We were expecting the usual 10, 90 or 61 which are further south. We endured the Google choice and were rewarded with flowing traffic until about 5 miles down the 605. Our thoughts about joining a freeway parking lot were interrupted by Google Maps offering a detour to save us 10 to 15 minutes of freeway obstruction. We agreed, or rather complied, with what AI was recommending. Again we were rewarded even though we had our doubts as to where we were being led. You get positive reinforcement when you see others taking being led down the same path! The bonus of the detour was that we now know where the Whittier Narrows Equestrian Center is!

Some of our L.A. area friends use the Waze app as it is more real time and they an add information for the benefit of other users. Apple Maps we use moderately less than Google Maps, which acts as a default for us. Find the app that works best for your transport type. 

Which leads us to the San Francisco part of this post and how using networked maps made public transit easier. Once you obtain a parking spot to leave your car at in the city area… go ahead and take some time to appreciate that… it’s in your best interests to use public transport to travel around. There are almost too many public transport options in SanFrancisco, but they have been doing it for so long they have it well networked.

We rode the trolley and the jumped on/off buses to visit some places on our first day there. Notably we had to make a big directional change while on a bus because of an event that changed time. Normally we would have wasted half an hour trying to figure out where and how to make this change. With the public transport information on Google Maps we were there in half an hour. The time saved is that you can see what mode of transport is arriving when and where and the estimated times of each leg of the journey. Meaning you can jump modes and lines easily.

As long as your navigation device has network access and has charge, it’s a no-brainer to use some type of app on a mobile device to find your way around. This could work via intermittent WiFi if you have downloaded maps. More on that in the other NAVIGATION post. 

One other thing: you’ll still have spousal conflict and be stopping occasionally to clarify where on earth you are, but it won’t be as frequently.