A Sense of Scale in Need of Adjustment
I am back in New Jersey after spending about a week in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. My wife and I rented a car once we got to Vegas, and drove 2,200+ miles in Nevada, Arizona and California.
A curious thing – we never got used to the scale of space out there. Trips invariably took longer than we expected. It’s just that the routes on the map, filtered through the prism of our (mostly NJ) driving experience, turned out to be much longer on the ground than we thought they would be. What looked like a 5-minute trip (or even walking distance in LA) took 20 minutes to drive (we drove mostly off-rush-hour, so traffic’s not to blame).
We used hard-copy maps, obviously. Google drive-time maps would have brought us back to reality. But this added a fun twist to the whole experience.
Posted by Atanas Entchev at 8/29/2008 1:14 PM 
Categories: New Jersey, General, Opinion, blog, Maps, NJ, GIS, Google
Tags: New Jersey General Opinion blog Maps NJ GIS Google
Categories: New Jersey, General, Opinion, blog, Maps, NJ, GIS, Google
Tags: New Jersey General Opinion blog Maps NJ GIS Google
Yes! We had the same experience in 1986 driving from Vegas to Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, etc. As NJ drivers in a part of NJ where you don't often see much open sky, we often were amused to find how long it took to get closer to that crest in the distance...
We almost ran out of gas whilst driving through the petrified forest! Hmm what was the price/gal then..?
Luigi Toscano della BTMUA
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What is interesting to me is that we, as intelligent and educated adults, should be able to make the adjustment analytically (even more so since we are also map makers). Yet, invariably, the child in us takes over, and we are surprised. Just like we are sometimes scared on our second watching of a scary movie, knowing (cerebrally) fully well what's coming.
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