RE: The only way is (north) up! PH Blog
Sunday 14th February 2016
How do you have your navigation screen set in your car?
Direction of travel? North!I like to think of myself as a generally tolerant chap. And in all other respects my relationship with PHTV co-host James is a good one. But I find one element of his personality a perpetual disappointment.
Boo, hiss, etc...Practical evidence of the evils of direction of travel navigation was revealed to me the other week travelling from Silverstone to near Telford. In my head I knew roughly I needed to head north-west across country to the M40, north, west a bit on the M42, pick up northbound M5/M6 and then west along the M54. I could picture it in my mind clear as day but had the nav on to get me to my final destination. My downfall was trusting the machine to sort the route out and get me there. But the JLR nav in the Range Rover locks to direction of travel when a route is programmed. And by the time it had me in a circle of despair somewhere around Bridgnorth it was too late to do anything about it.
The only way is (north) up! PH Blog
Battle lines need to be drawn between the direction of travel wanderers and true north fundamentalists!
Think carefully before answering.
Direction of travel? North!
He's a direction of travel man.
I find this odd. Because he's generally a sound, no-nonsense kind of bloke. And I bet if I gave him a proper map he'd do what real men do, hold it upright and use spatial awareness and a sense of direction to understand north is up and everything else relative to that. Not stand on a street corner turning the map round and round, scratching his head looking like some sort of confused tourist.
And yet every time we swap cars there it is - nav set to direction of travel or, worse, 3D direction of travel. He claims this is because he's 'a modern gentleman' in touch with technology. I say he's directionally confused. Or, as a Surrey boy, just scared of the north and a bit jittery beyond his current home in the midlands.
Boo, hiss, etc...
I'll accept I might, possibly, be displaying some stereotypical northern belligerence here. So let's have it out - north up for the win or move with the times and the direction of travel?
Dan
Discussion
I always go for direction of travel as well, as I find it a lot quicker to read.
I find the same true of paper maps as well (and I don't care what anybody thinks) - but I can afford to concentrate a bit harder when I'm reading a paper map, so if north is always up then it's not the end of the world. When I'm using a satnav, on the other hand, which is effectively trying to read a map and drive at the same time, I'd much rather have the map-reading part made as undemanding as possible...
I find the same true of paper maps as well (and I don't care what anybody thinks) - but I can afford to concentrate a bit harder when I'm reading a paper map, so if north is always up then it's not the end of the world. When I'm using a satnav, on the other hand, which is effectively trying to read a map and drive at the same time, I'd much rather have the map-reading part made as undemanding as possible...
This is as old as the hills in aviation where, having no roads, people pay a lot more attention to conscious navigation. Until about 15 years ago most private pilots used actual proper paper maps, these days for most purposes they use moving-map GPS-style displays, which can be fed by GPS and/or other technologies.
The two religions are "north up" and "track up". "Track up" is intuitively easy for people who want to follow the directions of the machine. "North up" is for old school purists like me, and is better for situational awareness. It means when you report your position you can glance at the display or chart and easily say "Ten miles south-west of Little Piddling-in-the-Rain" without having to do a lot of mental gymnastics about directions.
For car use the subject I'm most usually interested in is "are we nearly there yet" and "who far to the next turn-off", and "track up" , or a 3d type representation of the roadway is easiest for then. But if you want a bigger sense of the area, e.g. because you want to pick your own diversion around something, then I find "north up" on a 2d map better.
The two religions are "north up" and "track up". "Track up" is intuitively easy for people who want to follow the directions of the machine. "North up" is for old school purists like me, and is better for situational awareness. It means when you report your position you can glance at the display or chart and easily say "Ten miles south-west of Little Piddling-in-the-Rain" without having to do a lot of mental gymnastics about directions.
For car use the subject I'm most usually interested in is "are we nearly there yet" and "who far to the next turn-off", and "track up" , or a 3d type representation of the roadway is easiest for then. But if you want a bigger sense of the area, e.g. because you want to pick your own diversion around something, then I find "north up" on a 2d map better.
giveitfish said:
You're weird Dan. First thing you're taught on any navigation course is to orient the map.
Not in aviation.North up is preferred in flying instruction with paper charts because the chart is littered with written verbal and numerical information you have to be able to read and assimilate at a glance, and unless you can read a small frequency number with equal facility from any orientation, you're better off keeping it all the right way up to read.
Lowtimer said:
Not in aviation.
North up is preferred in flying instruction with paper charts because the chart is littered with written verbal and numerical information you have to be able to read and assimilate at a glance, and unless you can read a small frequency number with equal facility from any orientation, you're better off keeping it all the right way up to read.
Despite their recent valiant attempts, the PH gang have only managed to get their RRS SVR a few feet from the ground. I'm not sure that could be considered aviation.North up is preferred in flying instruction with paper charts because the chart is littered with written verbal and numerical information you have to be able to read and assimilate at a glance, and unless you can read a small frequency number with equal facility from any orientation, you're better off keeping it all the right way up to read.
giveitfish said:
You're weird Dan. First thing you're taught on any navigation course is to orient the map.
^^THIS^^The advantage of 3D representation is that you see detail of what's nearby, but still see an overview of what's in the distance. And 3D doesn't make sense with 'north up'.
'North up' in a car just seems bizarre. I'd never consider using it.
Sat nav? what's that then? ;D (and yes I'm a northerner, North Easterner to be precise) Never use it to be honest, I may have it on the old phone but aside from that nada, never really used it. If I need to go somewhere it's the old fashioned way, map and, maybe to fine tune the destination and pick out some notable landmarks, a quick hop on to Google map and street view (edited to say before I set off).
If I had to use sat nav it'd be a 2D fixed North option, I can see having the map in 3D only makes it harder to process info at a glance because you're trying to process spacial awareness of the little (or not so little) 3D image and where you are on the map.
If I had to use sat nav it'd be a 2D fixed North option, I can see having the map in 3D only makes it harder to process info at a glance because you're trying to process spacial awareness of the little (or not so little) 3D image and where you are on the map.
Edited by alpha channel on Friday 12th February 14:10
Ha-ha. Slow day, by any chance? I don't give it too much thought and to be honest haven't checked to see how you change the settings, but the default position, and the one I use, is direction of travel.
On satnavs, my £200 tomtom appears to be better than my c.£1000 pro nav in my 3 series. Doh! Still, the latter looks nicer.
On satnavs, my £200 tomtom appears to be better than my c.£1000 pro nav in my 3 series. Doh! Still, the latter looks nicer.
Definitely direction of travel for me, and that is also how I would plot a route on a map and follow it if a passenger. Satnavs seem to have been programmed correctly in this respect. The north is on top in many ways, and we all know it is best whether physically on top of the map or not 
The only time direction of travel gets confusing is when heading downhill, that surely has to mean heading down on the map requiring an orientation change!
The only time direction of travel gets confusing is when heading downhill, that surely has to mean heading down on the map requiring an orientation change!
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