Tuesday, November 14, 2006

When Maps Reflected Romance of the Road

NY Times describes in a piece titled 'When Maps Reflected Romance of the Road ' how today the road map is mostly an online 'virtual' electronic image - and how this is destroying the romance of navigating a car journey by good ole paper maps that used to hide the car screen as you drove... ahh, those good old days:

'Perhaps it is the contrast with digital maps that makes old-fashioned paper road maps seem rich and wonderful again. Those colorful guides once found in every glove compartment are gaining desirability not just as collectibles but as cultural records — even in archives as august as those of the Library of Congress....

...The old road maps don’t give oral directions or find the nearest A.T.M. But their resolution, design and colors all make the digital variety pale: the screens in our cars seem like remnants of the days of the first I.B.M. PCs...In the ’20s, maps also often showed airplanes, boats and other exciting vehicles that used the fuel and oil produced by the company issuing the map.'

Thanks to Mimi!

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