Hot take: paper maps beat GPS for city walking, here's why

I spent 4 days in Boston last spring using only a folded MBTA map and a street atlas from 2019. GPS kept rerouting me down dead ends and draining my phone by 2pm, but the paper version made me actually learn the grid around Beacon Hill. Sure, I missed one turn near the Common, but I found a killer dumpling spot on Washington Street that Yelp never showed. Anyone else ditch the phone for walking trips, or am I just stubborn?

2 comments

2 Comments

morganj8129d ago

Print out the route before you head out and keep it in your jacket pocket, then use the phone only when you're truly lost, like I do in DC. It saves battery for emergencies and forces you to glance at street signs instead of staring at a screen, which makes the city stick in your head way better. You're not stubborn, you're just using a backup plan that actually works...

hall.charles28d ago

Man, that's the same reason I still jot down grocery lists on a scrap of paper instead of my phone, it forces you to actually remember things instead of just outsourcing your brain to a screen. Weird how the clunky way often ends up being the smarter way, right?