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Directions

TheCatWoman

Why are people so bad at giving directions? I went to get some curtains from a lady up the road and I was given awful directions, needless to say I didn't get them, but will try again tomorrow. Why do people insist that you know where a certain place is even when you tell them you're new to the area? Satnavs are pretty useless round here, most of the time they dont' work, they dump you in the middle of a village and tell you you've reached your destination, or they dump you at the extreme end of a postcode area. This might be less of a problem in a town where you have rows of houses and there might be a couple of postcodes in a street, but not here, many houses, mine included don't have numbers, but names, the houses are fairly spread out and some have long drives and you don't know if theres a house down there or a field. Even looking at google maps was a waste of time, it was really out of date, pointing out places that don't exist, never existed or no longer exist. One place it marked out is s restaurant that changed it's proposed name before even opening, it has the name that it was never called, the restaurant opened in 2018 and it apprears the map hasn't been updated since then. Bl00dy technology, I'd rather have an old fashioned map,at least it's then up to me to keep it up to date, rather than have to rely on something that lies to you, we're told it's all up to date when it's not it's a lie.

Well thats my rant for the evening!

  • in reply to TheCatWoman
    TheCatWoman said:
    ou sound like my Mum, she got lost on a train she was already on went the wrong way coming out of the loo and ended up at the end wondering why she couldn't find my Dad. 

    Yes, my Blackwells experience was like that. I think the assistant thought I was making it up. When I go anywhere, I have to try and remember if it was left or right that I entered. I'm much better staying at home and being a 'Google earth' virtual traveller!

  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    I've been lost like that a few times and it's really frightening. I can understand completely. As I get older, my sense of direction worsens and I dislike being anywhere I don't recognise. 

  • Good landmarks are key to directions I find, that and being clear which direction you are facing and what's on either side of you.  If someone gives good directions, it helps, or you can end up even more lost.

    Sat Navs can be useful, but in the countryside they can be useless like you say. There is a postcode that streteches miles down the valley and the odd few houses all share it. Deliveries are always going wrong -people have to go on whatsApp or FB and ask if anyone has seen their parcel -sometimes there is a picture to help work out where it's been dropped off. A lot of the houses in the village have names rather than numbers, and that really makes it hard for deliveries -I've been asked where places are, and sometimes I know, and sometimes they are away down the valley and I can't help.

    I don't think i have a good sense of direction, I tend to learn routes and recognise places to help. I used to live in Derby and my whole notion of north was completely off and where things lay. I was amazed when i saw a map as it looked completely different from my head. 

    I got lost once commuting home and the junction off the motorway was shut. I ended up lost in the dark, the car on fumes and my mobile with nearly no power and in tears. Eventually I found myself in an industrial estate and found a petrol station, and they did manage to give me good directions. Though I then got lost in another city unable to get off a one way system. That was an awful night, I think it took me 3 hours to get home when it was normally an hour.

  • in reply to Marianne72

    I've spoken about problems with satnavs on here before and so far I think you're about the only person that gets it, either everyone else lives somewhere where the coverage is good or they're in a different country where it's all different anyway. Some satnavs don't like my postcode at all and refuse to believe it exists, I get the same with some address boxes on online forms and many refuse to believe we're not part of Gwynedd. Not having a device capable of of it I've never used what3words, they only time we tried on a computer it showed us the middle of a field.

    I have a good sense of direction and good visualisation skills, so I can follow directions, but many don't seem to know how to give them, I do and have been told that I give very good and clear ones. I know not everyone has my skills, but even so I expect a bit better.

    You sound like my Mum, she got lost on a train she was already on went the wrong way coming out of the loo and ended up at the end wondering why she couldn't find my Dad. 

  • TheCatWoman said:
    Why are people so bad at giving directions?

    Giving directions is a definite skill - it depends on how both persons perceive the meaning of, 'direction.' I know what you mean - I have no sense of direction. I got lost in Blackwells' bookshop in Oxford some years ago [it has a lot of inner stairways and narrow corridors] and an assistant had to lead me out  [very embarrassed face]. I don't know if the 3 word locator is any better? Devon's like Wales for satnav, it has narrow lanes with high banks and satnav rarely works. I am rubbish at map-reading too - have to keep turning the map upside down to follow the road, so this isn't practical when you're driving alone in a car. Perhaps someone technical can explain why satnav's are like this - after all, the satellite is so high up in the atmosphere, it can see over hedges??