Free state map comparisons
On my recent trip, I picked up from rest stops the state provided maps from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, bringing the total in my truck up to 18 now. I decided to compare them, starting with the best.
I didn't find a clear-cut best, but I think my favorite is 2003-2004 Maryland map. Only New Jersey's 1 inch = 4 mile scale was better than Maryland's 1 inch = 6 miles, and it folds well, but for me the deciding factor was that the Maryland one was the only one to indicate what projection was used--the Lambert conformal conic projection. (Click here for a discussion of various conic projection maps or here for mathematical formulae for the Lambert conformal conic projection.) Also, Maryland uses an odd scale bar that increments by 6 miles instead of 5 or 10. (South Carolina used a similar scale bar.) New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Indiana also provide high quality maps, all with scales bigger than 1 inch = 10 miles.
The next tier with scales ranging from 10 to 15 miles per inch include Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Illinois, all of which provide for easy navigation.
My only qualms with the Georgia and Ohio maps are they do not fold well. In order to see any of the map, you must unfold all of it; whereas the above maps fold nicely to a managable size showing just the portion of the state that you are in at the moment. Alabama's 2002-2003 map also has this problem, and I would say that the map, made by MapQuest.com, is on the wrong scale for the huge sheet of paper it's printed on. It includes enough of the surrounding area so that Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans are all on the map, and while it is interesting to see the navigation lanes between the state's five protected artificial reef area forty miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, I'm not going to drive through them. Just make a larger scale map.
The only one that I would really say is substandard is my 2001 Arizona map. It has the smallest scale at 1 inch = 18 miles (yes, it is a big state with lots of area with few roads, but it also folds poorly, contains no roads outside the state's borders, and at first I thought it was made by the Best Western hotel chain instead of Arizona Office of Tourism.
I didn't find a clear-cut best, but I think my favorite is 2003-2004 Maryland map. Only New Jersey's 1 inch = 4 mile scale was better than Maryland's 1 inch = 6 miles, and it folds well, but for me the deciding factor was that the Maryland one was the only one to indicate what projection was used--the Lambert conformal conic projection. (Click here for a discussion of various conic projection maps or here for mathematical formulae for the Lambert conformal conic projection.) Also, Maryland uses an odd scale bar that increments by 6 miles instead of 5 or 10. (South Carolina used a similar scale bar.) New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Indiana also provide high quality maps, all with scales bigger than 1 inch = 10 miles.
The next tier with scales ranging from 10 to 15 miles per inch include Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Illinois, all of which provide for easy navigation.
My only qualms with the Georgia and Ohio maps are they do not fold well. In order to see any of the map, you must unfold all of it; whereas the above maps fold nicely to a managable size showing just the portion of the state that you are in at the moment. Alabama's 2002-2003 map also has this problem, and I would say that the map, made by MapQuest.com, is on the wrong scale for the huge sheet of paper it's printed on. It includes enough of the surrounding area so that Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, and New Orleans are all on the map, and while it is interesting to see the navigation lanes between the state's five protected artificial reef area forty miles out into the Gulf of Mexico, I'm not going to drive through them. Just make a larger scale map.
The only one that I would really say is substandard is my 2001 Arizona map. It has the smallest scale at 1 inch = 18 miles (yes, it is a big state with lots of area with few roads, but it also folds poorly, contains no roads outside the state's borders, and at first I thought it was made by the Best Western hotel chain instead of Arizona Office of Tourism.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home