Distance and Directions

[PollyannaMom]

Inspired by the Thanksgiving thread, how do people measure distance where you are?

miles? km? travel time?

And, while we're on the subject, how do they give directions?

by street names or by landmarks?
by right and left turns or by north/south/east/west?

The poll will allow multiple votes!

 

[bethbuchall]

It all depends, but I'd say most of the time we talk about distance in travel time (especially longer distances) and give directions by landmarks. Directions vary from person to person more, though. At first I read it as how I give directions...then my answer would be, "Poorly."

 

[dotfurio]

When giving directions I just tell people my address and have the put it in theri maps ap/gps. I've lived here 15 years and I still don't know the names of all the little streets around me.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Where I live, it goes by miles, crossroads & mostly east or west of the interstate or other major roads. We try to avoid south, if at all possible. Where I'm from, we mostly used landmarks & right or left turns.

 

[powellrj]

As I said in the Thanksgiving thread, we measure distance by time, not miles! As for directions, I have always said tell me what mall or hospital its by and I will find it. This was before everyone had a GPS.

 

[ronandannette]

I clicked almost all your choices because the way directions are best given totally depends on where you start from and where you want to end up. For instance, I wouldn't describe a trip to our local store as being .5 km east of here and then turn south, I'd say "turn right out of the parking lot, go straight for 4 blocks then turn right again".

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My wife gives directions by landmarks, I do by streets & direction.

If giving directions, it's in mikes. If describing distance, often in time (go 5 miles East to Hwy JJ, then East on Rt K. Or, it's 45 minutes to Uncle Jim's house).

 

[jevs]

I voted kms and some other complicated thing

The complicated distance is when we say it's just down the road. Could be anything between a 5 minute drive to a 3 day road trip

 

[kimblebee]

If it's somewhere far away, it's in time.

If it's somewhere in the city, it's a combo of streets and landmarks. Don't tell me east, or 5/8 of a mile (even though we're km here lol)..that means nothing to me.

 

[tvguy]

I give distance in miles, and directions by major streets and specific landmarks. I do get asked by my crews about travel time, but at best that is a guesstimate. A co-worker swears he lives 15 minutes from work, but he is always 10 to 15 minutes late despite "leaving" on time. I would suggest maybe he lives 25 to 30 minutes from work in reality.
As residents of one neighborhood have found, after a popular new business opened near them GPS sometimes can be useless. Old fashioned GPSs, cell phone GPSs and even Google Maps routes people into the residential area where there is no access to this business.
http://www.abc10.com/news/gps-glitch-makes-issues-for-roseville-s-topgolf/318158195a

 

[Marchand63]

By my maps app in iPhone 7!

 

[tvguy]

By my maps app in iPhone 7!

LOL. See my link in my post about about the huge map app fail in this area.

 

[xjillianpaige]

landmarks + lefts/rights. to get from my house to the high school i went to.

"okay, so turn left out of my street and then right. keep going until you get to the lights and take a right. go all the way until you get to the weird rotary and go around. you're gonna go past city hall and want to be in the second lane from the right. go up past the bowling alley and over the hill. keep going until the high school is on your right."

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Where I live now, it's by street names, and "city" blocks. I live in a Chicago suburb, and you can tell distance by street names: "31st and so and so" or "95th and wherever". 8 city blocks is a mile, so if you need to travel from 31st to 95th, it's about 8 miles (if going due south). Time travelled depends on time of day and area you are in, so directions are almost never described by time travelled here. In rush hour, 8miles can take you 35 minutes in some areas or 15 min on a good street, or as little as 10 minutes on a Sunday morning on almost any street.

Where I lived before, in MI, everything was by time driven - "my mom lives about an hour from here, maybe an hour 15 in (rush hour) traffic" or "the store is 10 min away". I honestly never thought of anything in measured distances for the first 35 years of my life!

 

[wenrob]

DH gives North/South/East/West so many miles type of directions.

I give you'll see such and such landmark here, turn left or right on your first, second or third street type of directions.

I have absolutely no sense of direction and cannot judge distance to save my life. Before maps on phones I would seek out directions from anyone other than my DH. Having spoken directions with left or right in my pocket has been a game changer for me. I would never think of heading out of town on my own 10 years ago, now I do it with confidence. Never had Maps fail me and can think of only two times where things went awry. One was when Maps on iPhone was still done by Google and it kept trying to take me into entrance to a gated community that wasn't there. I later learned it had planned to be one but they nixed it. The other was a freeway entrance that was under construction and Siri had no idea about it. I haven't gotten lost in years when before I got lost regularly in my own home town.