This post carries a Hawkeye long post warning.
Son David has progressed well IMO since passing his test a few months ago. I thought I'd given him a good introduction to motoring; he washes his car, checks levels and tyres regularly and hasn't damaged anything yet. He is philosophical about being bullied on the A1 by some truck drivers and some BMW drivers who are too important to obey the 40mph limit under the Scotch Corner flyover; he deploys the Citroen AX's perky 50 bhp to keep up with the traffic yet he is not so lead-footed as to crucify the expected MPG. He shows IMO maturity, and appropriate assertiveness and restraint in his driving.
Today, he faced a navigation challenge; to leave college in Darlington and find his way to work in Newby Wiske. He researched his route which took him through Northallerton (where he did a lot of L-driving) and out the other side. About 5 minutes before he was due to start work, I took a call from him which is roughly transcribed below.
David "Dad, have you got a few minutes? I'm well and truly totally lost"
H(stupidly) "Where?" Doh!
David "Dad, I'm LOST. I dunno. But I just passed a sign to Thirsk"
H "OK. Give me a clue. What was the last town you went through?"
David "Northallerton" pause "I think"
H "Where was the sign to Thirsk?"
David "About 200 yards back. The traffic's really treacly"
H "I mean was the sign at a junction? Roundabout?"
David "Roundabout"
H "Right. What can you see around you?"
David "Cars, loads of cars" pause "And a truck with no brake lights"
H(stifles a giggle) "I mean at the roadside. Houses, shops, countryside. That sort of thing"
David "Oh, houses" long pause "I'm just next to No 83" pause "Hang on, we're moving. I'm going round a roundabout with a sign to Romanby".
From then on I had him pin-pointed and helped him on his way. The point of this ramble is to ask if any backroomers with recently-passed children have given them any instruction on what to do when lost. I had loads of information talking to David; all of it accurate; most of it useless. Can your children read a map? How would you brief them to gather useful information to speed up an I'm lost conversation?
This conversation was conducted mobile to mobile, me parked, him using handsfree (which he'd practiced with in the yard.
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
|
Friend of the youngest passed her test fairly recently. She knows not how to get to anywhere driving, including places she'd walk or get the bus! Mile radius or so from home and that's her limit.
Claims to be travel sick on the bus so never looks out so that's no help. Asked for advise on sat-nav and asked is (a) or (b) better to I replied (c). I shudder to think how bad she will drive with sat nav - she cannot navigate locally full stop. Hope she gets 6 points and banned soon to be honest. Not likely as she won't drive.
Sad that she cost loads to learn, parents bought themselves a brand new Grande Punto, she has the old one insured in her name (at 18) and she doesn't drive it.
|
|
|
|
This is what Dad's are for. Not long after my daughter passed her test with a local instructor who only ever took her into the local town I was walking down the Champs Elysée when the mobile rang. She had no idea how to get a village less than five miles from home so the obvious solution was to ring Dad at £3 or so a minute. She has now been educated in the use of Mappy and ViaMichelin which works out a lot cheaper.
|
No 1 son passed his test on Thursday. (second attempt) He will be 18 next month. He has sat nav, and has already negotiated the m25 and more scarily the North Circular road.
I remember when I first passed my test, and i used to drive anywhere just for the enjoyment. I didnt know where i was but that didnt matter. There are places I found then that I would love to re-visit but i have no idea where they are!
------------------------------
< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
|
It's a long time ago now, but I was taught map-reading in the Boy Scouts and in secondary school geography - don't they do this any more?
|
In school as part of geography we were given OS maps and then taught how to interpret the geographical features, (even to the extent of producing a x section horizontal drawing of the topography from it) and how to find any point on a map from a grid reference. Maps are works of art, history books, social directories. I taught orienteering to cubs using map and compass.
I am a superb map reader and navigator, with an inbuilt sense of orientation. Mostly I can memorise a route from a map and know where i should be going. However I still consider the sat nav device to be the single most useful piece of electronic gadgetry for motoring ever produced, and I doubt it will be surpassed. It provides usefulness, enjoyment, and takes nothing away from the art of driving. The 21st century killer app.
------------------------------
< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
|
Totally agree AE (shortly to become, I believe, AAE - Alternative Altea Ego....)
I love map-reading, and my Philips Navigator 1.5 inch atleas is a good second best to the OS maps. But try to find, as I did this week, an address in the middle of Kingston-upon-Thames: I might be there still but for Tom Tom.
|
|
|
"In school as part of geography we were given OS maps and then taught how to interpret the geographical features, (even to the extent of producing a x section horizontal drawing of the topography from it)"
Still done in many schools AE, and map-reading (even cross section drawing!) is still tested on (some) GCSE sylabuses (syllabii?). Skills learned are easily transferable to road atlases for driving etc.
OS makes it easy for schools to do because for the last few years they have supplied a FREE (usual cost about £7.99) 1:25000 map of the local area to every child starting secondary school in Year 7 each September. These maps cannot be retained by the school and are the property of the individual child. Surprisingly some schools do not take advantage of this offer - if you have a child starting secondary school this year give the school (Geog Dept?)a ring to ask if they are getting the free maps -
Check here
freemaps.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/freemapsfor11yearold...1
--
Phil
|
Very similar story to that told to me by a friend in the pub one evening, Friend arrived in pub looking very "flustered" and explained that his daughter (who had just passed her test two days before) had just arrived home on the train. When asked why that had "upset" him he replied "cos she took my car! an I need it for work in the morning".
Poor lass had borrowed Dads car (with permission) and taken her best friend out on a shopping spree in Preston (about 60miles away). Unfortunately she had parked in a side street somewhere, and after wandering around a few hours in and out of shops, niether of them could find the car again!.
Police eventually found it, and he went to collect it from where she had left it, trouble was it was 10 days later.
Billy
|
My daughter and her then boyfriend rang me up from Ireland once and said their car, an elderly Golf, had stopped. They had just run through a big puddle, she said.
'Was it a really huge puddle, threw up a lot of water and so on?'
'Yes. What shall we do? It's raining.'
'Had you been driving for some time before the puddle? Is the engine properly warm?'
'Yes.'
'Don't worry. Don't run the battery flat trying to start it now. Listen to the tape player for five or ten minutes and then try to start it again. The electrics should dry out in a few minutes.'
Ten minutes later they called again and thanked me. Pity they didn't have to change the big-end bearings by telephone. I would have enjoyed that.
|
My daughter called me from Christchurch re the ancient FIAT Uno we were just about keeping running. "Dad it won't start" I reminder her she was entitled to call the AA and I did not intent doing extended diagnostics over the phone as I was on holiday, also in Christchurch (but the one in New Zealand ) .
She can at least navigate but son is able to get lost with a TomTom.
|
|
|
|
I am a superb map reader I still consider the sat nav device to be the single most useful piece of electronic gadgetry for motoring ever produced and I doubt it will be surpassed. It provides usefulness enjoyment and takes nothing away from the art of driving. The 21st century killer app. ------------------------------
EEEEEh (in nasal, doubt-casting tone)
Rotates left hand loosely back and forth in New York Jewish style.
|
|
|
|
|
Oh I'm not impuning his map-reading skills. In fact he navigated us from a village near Nottingham to Cadbury World once using the road atlas and a print out from Multimap. He didn't know about the brown signs (too busy looking at the map) and I didn't tell him!
Moving from the protected world of being given blow-by-blow instructions by a driving instructor, what should a new driver be looking out for to help someone on the other end of the phone to assist them?
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
|
The first thing I was taught if lost (especially in fog at sea!) is to stay where you are till you are found!. It's no use trying to describe things around you to a "blind" helper over the phone, if you are moving and things are changing as you speak. (quote scenario) "remember that Oak tree i told you about? well if its any help its 2.3 miles behind me now!"
Billy
|
You have to learn by getting lost, I reckon! There's no reason for young people (or anyone for that matter) who never go anywhere but their usual places to have a sat nav.
I can't use a sat nav because, even as the driver, it has the same effect as reading in the car does (very very travel sick). I've got a map, and having been a good Girl Guide I am pretty confident I could navigate both away from terrible traffic or off a foggy hill top with a compass. (FYI - they weren't teaching this at school when I was there, and I only left in '97)
There's a strange part of me who believes in fate and not turning around and going back if I can avoid it. As an absolute last resort, I'll phone the other half, who, with years as a rep behind him, can tell where I am from the most obscure descriptions.
But then, I am a woman, and not ashamed to stop and ask for directions.... ;)
Edit, because I realised I didn't answer the question - I would find it easier to direct someone if they told me which pubs they were passing, or bizarre sculptures/statues/landmarks than road names. I couldn't tell you the actual road name of half the roads I drive on every day, but I would know where you were if you described it to me.
|
|
|
|
Moving from the protected world of being given blow-by-blow instructions by a driving instructor what should a new driver be looking out for to help someone on the other end of the phone to assist them?
What?? Just stop and ask someone!!
|
|
|
|
This quote I read recently sums up sat nav perfectly:
'You'll always get to where you wanted but you'll never remember how you got there'
There is no substitute for proper map interpretation to fall back on when your sat nav packs up or you haven't got one at all.
|
|
I spent a lot of my youth driving around out of the way places without a map, just for the fun of it. London too! Now, I can drive anywhere and everywhere (almost) without a map. My kids marvel at this......"How did you know this was here"? "How do you find your way around, I could never have done that". I think that it imbues an innate sense of direction that is second to none. I know lots of country pubs that do good food, nice old churches worth a visit in dead end country lanes, nice spots for a picnic by a duck pond, short cuts etc etc. Youngsters today don't seem to have that ability do they?
|
|
It was coach drivers that impressed me when I was a kid, they seemed to know where everywhere was....
|
|
|
>>
>>Youngsters today don't seem to have that ability do they?
My youngest daughter seems to have cultivated some direction finding after a few years driving about.
She was "kidnapped" by friends taking her to her 21st Birthday party at a surprise venue. It was a place she knew, but they didn't want her to know so took her for a drive blindfolded until she was "lost".
It took over 20 minutes travelling a variety of roads before she stopped telling the driver where they were.
I'm not sure I could do that.
|
"taking her to her 21st Birthday party at a surprise venue. It was a place she knew"
And the point was... blind fold off and she knew where she was. A place she knew ;-)
|
Yes but they didnt want her to know that where they were going.
------------------------------
< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
|
"Yes but they didnt want her to know that where they were going."
And the point was.... ;-) She knew when she got there and it took longer to get her confused before getting to somewhere where she knew.
I congratulate her on a good sense of direction even when blind folded though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
