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Atman

(31,464 posts)

6. I learned to drive on the streets of Boston.

Reply to alp227 (Original post)

Sun Aug 18, 2013, 08:18 PM

Aug 2013

Storrow Drive is a crazy place to unleash a 16 year old! (It was the 70's). Now our son lives in Cambridge, and last time we visited my wife drove. She insisted on using the Garmin. She never believed me when I told her to ignore it! It took us an extra fifteen minutes just to get from the Watertown/Cambridge town line to Harvard Square, just because she didn't believe I had better recollection of the city I grew up in than the computer on the dashboard! It truly dumbs us down...swallows still find their way home to Capistrano. We fought about what should have been a ten minute trip down Albany Avenue.

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Highlight:

Do our brains pay a price for GPS? [View all] alp227 Aug 2013 OP

Pilots and truck drivers rely on GPS everyday soryang Aug 2013 #1

My husband was a pilot. Jet fighter in the military. Rozlee Aug 2013 #8

. Mojorabbit Aug 2013 #14

Hang in there, he needs you now. bemildred Aug 2013 #19

The ability to dead-reckon navigate VFR is the sign of a good pilot Populist_Prole Aug 2013 #10

Use your head first enlightenment Aug 2013 #2

+1 mgc1961 Aug 2013 #7

After the recent SFO crash, new rules were put in place for foreign pilots Gormy Cuss Aug 2013 #22

As a counterexample... drm604 Aug 2013 #3

GPS is lousy at route finding around town. Out in the open, it's OK. bemildred Aug 2013 #4

Yup, GPS blows when trying to get around L.A. traffic. nt SunSeeker Aug 2013 #15

Ah, someone who knows. nt bemildred Aug 2013 #18

That part about mental maps being individual Curmudgeoness Aug 2013 #5

Same here. I have to be driving to remember Ilsa Aug 2013 #27

I learned to drive on the streets of Boston. Atman Aug 2013 #6

Some years back my husband got a GPS SheilaT Aug 2013 #9

It does tend to make one geographically duller witted Populist_Prole Aug 2013 #11

Before I learned to drive, I had very limited mental maps starroute Aug 2013 #12

They said the same thing when the printing press was invented. nt bananas Aug 2013 #13

Strawman argument n/t Populist_Prole Aug 2013 #17

GPS is part of our system now, gotta get used to it. ConcernedCanuk Aug 2013 #16

I lived in Atlanta when the Flames were there... JayhawkSD Aug 2013 #20

It can be incredibly useful; but, I don't use it every time LongTomH Aug 2013 #21

I've noticed the same thing with phone numbers jeffrey_pdx Aug 2013 #23

So true. Curmudgeoness Aug 2013 #30

Having fought a map in JoeyT Aug 2013 #24

Blame Boston, not your GPS Demeter Aug 2013 #25

I have done home nursing since the 90s. I know Chicago really well. mucifer Aug 2013 #26

for similar reasons, a long time ago, i stopped taking notes. unblock Aug 2013 #28

London cabbies have bigger brains mainer Aug 2013 #29