Comment on I am unobservant
Trashboat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 days ago
I feel dumb whenever people are telling me road names, of even major roads. Like, I know the turns to take, who’s got the time to check out the street sign while watching traffic/turning?
Technoguyfication@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
You don’t hear the road names when your GPS tells you where to turn? I’m shocked by how many people are unfamiliar with major crossroads in their city. I’ve met people who couldn’t even tell me what crossroads they lived at. To me, part of learning to drive meant making a note of the road names near me so I was familiar with locations based on road names.
I’m not old either, I’m in my early 20s.
Pringles@lemm.ee 5 days ago
Which savage listens to the gps? Turning off the sound is the first thing I do. Although I have been considering getting a snoop dogg voiced gps or maybe Douglas Hedley (the philosophy professor from Cunk).
can@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
My GPS stays silent. Glancing at the map is less distracting for me.
Trashboat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 days ago
I live in the country - I know what road I live on and the couple connecting roads, but not the roads around the city a ways away that has my regular places, or the big highways I’ve not really had much reason to use. I don’t really drive all that much, and once I learned how to get to my usual places from the GPS (which did say the names) then I knew which turns to take and didn’t need it, so I never heard the names after that. They’ve just not been all that relevant to me getting places unless someone tries to give me directions that way, where it’s almost always easier just to have an address.
Granted I’m not much of a fan of driving really, I avoid it if I can which makes being in the middle of nowhere a bit more inconvenient heheheh
limelight79@lemm.ee 5 days ago
This is common. I drive and ride a bicycle a lot, so I know the area really well and rarely need a GPS for day-to-day navigation. I’ll use it during rides to make sure I stay on the route for the ride, and for unusual situations (like confirming the most direct route home after a major mechanical problem). But, in general, the GPS is the backup to my knowledge.
There have been many times when a route change was proposed for some reason, and the change was laid out clearly with road names, on roads we’re familiar with, and people are in agreement. But it turns out most of them have zero idea where we’re talking about, and when the turn comes, they’re all confused - “I thought the route went straight here!” Uh, it did, until we decided to change it at the last rest stop, as we discussed…
These are people that have been riding these roads for years or even decades. We’re generally older people, too, that grew up without GPSes, so you’d think that navigation would be built in. At 49, I’m usually the youngest of the group. There’s one guy - older than me - that has been riding in the area for two decades, and he does truly know every road and every port-a-pot in the area. He also doesn’t use a GPS bike computer and just memorizes the routes. But most people seem to have little idea of road names or how it all fits together.
After a few incidents where confusion reigned after a course change mid-ride, I’ve banned “day of” route changes from rides I lead, for anything other than a serious problem - unexpected bad weather, mechanical or medical issues, road construction, etc. People just don’t know what change we’re making, and it causes all kinds of confusion.