Ordnance Survey vs A-Z vs Google Maps
Posted by Mark Moxon on 22 May 2008
When you’re walking in the countryside, there’s only one kind of map you need: an Ordnance Survey map. My preferred choice is the orange-covered 1:25,000 Explorer series, whose maps show field boundaries, individual buildings and enough details to make navigation a pleasure. The purple 1:50,000 Landranger maps aren’t bad either, but while OS maps might be the Naz out there in the sticks, they are practically useless in big cities, and they don’t get a lot bigger than Greater London.
The problem is that the individual buildings tend to merge into one big, pinkish blob that smothers the whole map and makes it hard to pick out individual features. Road are shown, of course, but apart from major road numbers (like the A40, A4 and so on) they aren’t named, so you’d be stuffed if you tried to find your way round the City. This isn’t a criticism of the product – OS maps aren’t supposed to be used for city navigation, after all – but it does mean I’ve had to look elsewhere for inspiration.
The obvious place to look is the London A-Z, and I’m now the proud owner of the Big London A-Z, which covers almost all of the Tube in a ring-bound format, so I can rip off the pages I need and take them with me. Indeed, the A-Z scores heavily over OS maps, not just on road names, but also footpaths. OS maps don’t show that many paths in urban London, and they’re only obvious when they’re rights of way (of which there aren’t many), so it’s often impossible to know where you can walk; the A-Z, however, shows paths everywhere, and that makes life much easier for the urban stroller.
So I’ve got my paper maps, but I designed all my routes in Google Maps, so the next stage is to get my route into a format I can take with me. The obvious answer is to get an iPhone and hook up to my website as I walk, but I’m waiting for the 3G version, due later in the summer, so until then I’m stuck with paper. Luckily Google Maps print out pretty well; using the full screen versions of my route maps, I’m able to zoom in to a reasonable level of detail, and using the ‘Map’ mode, I can print out a street map showing my route and all the points of interest I’m going to pass on the way. I’ve just added a new feature – the ‘Labels’ button – which turns on all labels in a map, but sets them to be slightly opaque so you can still see the map beneath. It’s not perfect, but it does mean you can print out route maps, complete with labels, that work well in conjunction with the A-Z (or, for the outer regions in the countryside, OS Explorer maps). Here’s the first section of my first day’s walk, ready to print out:
For fun, I’ve also added a ‘Tube’ button that toggles the display of the Tube line. If nothing else, it’s useful for demonstrating just how drunken my routes are. Here are the northern reaches of the Northern line, showing my walking route in blue and the Tube line in red, along with details of any interesting points along the way:
Now all I have to do is print them out on my cheapo colour inkjet printer, stick them in a waterproof wallet, and off I go. Let’s just hope I don’t run out of ink…
Posted in Planning | Follow responses in the RSS feed | Trackback
