[Question] Sense of Direction

[GasBandit]

As I've previously intimated, my significant other has severe difficulties with her sense of direction. She gets lost in malls, is hopeless in any gaming environment that isn't a doorless hallway, and even has to have little sticky notes on the sides of her monitor to remind her which way is left and right.

I'd never met someone who has this level of difficulty before her. I myself have near preternatural levels of navigational prowess, so sometimes I find her difficulties amusing, sometimes frustrating. But searching the net, I've found it's actually not unheard of. So I'm wondering if it's actually all that rare, or if it happens more than I realize.

So here's a little poll just to satisfy my own demographical curiosity - how good is your sense of direction?

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Once I'm familiar with an area, I'm pretty good. I'm decent with following signs and such. But if it's for going somewhere new (even within the city), I usually need to at least look at GoogleMaps to figure out how to get there or at least the best way to get there.

 

[SpecialKO]

An ex of mine actually has the same problems as your SO, GB.
...
...
How are you dating my ex?

 

[Gared]

An ex of mine actually has the same problems as your SO, GB.
...
...
How are you dating my ex?

I wanna know how he's dating my wife. Any time she's driving somewhere I have to change my normal direction giving from "take the next left" to "take the next driver's side turn". Very annoying.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

GB's significant other is the same person as others?

Oh, no. It's gonna be the Squidleybits confusion all over again!

 

[SpecialKO]

I wanna know how he's dating my wife. Any time she's driving somewhere I have to change my normal direction giving from "take the next left" to "take the next driver's side turn". Very annoying.

With my ex, it was "my side" vs "your side". Which got confusing (for me) on long road trips where we traded places every few hours, but she always understood it.

 

[Squidleybits]

My sense of direction isn't fantastic at all. My husband gets really frustrated when I try to draw maps without street names. Thank god for my iphone and that lovely map app.[DOUBLEPOST=1348857468][/DOUBLEPOST]

GB's significant other is the same person as others?

Oh, no. It's gonna by the Squidleybits confusion all over again!

oh no!

 

[Azurephoenix]

I have a pretty good direction sense overall (though certainly not infalliable). My wife is actually quite good in urban environments but take her out of a city and she gets lost immediately (unless she has a map and compass which she can actually use better than me).

My ex girlfriend though? Absolutely TERRIBLE direction sense.

 

[Emrys]

I used to have a horrible sense of direction and really had to work at it to keep from getting lost in my own closet (in my defense, it was a rather large closet). I'm better at it now. I can find my way out of my closet on 2 out of 3 tries.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I was good until I moved to Oahu. Being on an island has totally thrown me off. In NJ I knew if I went east I'd eventually hit the ocean. In CA it was west. So I could figure out what direction I was headed in pretty easily with that in mind. I didn't get lost too often. Here I feel like I can't find my way out of our housing complex without being lost. It's gotten better, but there are days when I still get very turned around.
My mom is AWFUL. I told her this trick I learned in 5th grade about how if you put west to your left north will always be in front of you. You can get an idea of east and west because of the sun. It's not exact, but it generally works. She tried telling me that it wouldn't work all the time because the sun moves and you could end up facing the wrong way. 0_o But this is the same person who also insists that "lefty loosey, righty tighty " is wrong.

 

[North_Ranger]

I think my sense of direction is okay. It's my massive self-doubt and even bigger sense of perfectionism that is nigh-crippling when I have to go somewhere I do not automatically know the way.

 

[sixpackshaker]

I chose the first category, but I have good direction skills.

Also

You are not lost as long as you have gas in the tank.

 

[HCGLNS]

My sense of direction isn't fantastic at all. My husband gets really frustrated when I try to draw maps without street names. Thank god for my iphone and that lovely map app.[DOUBLEPOST=1348857468][/DOUBLEPOST]

oh no!

Dear once you were holding the map and I asked you which way to go, left or right, north or south and you answered.....

Spoiler

up.

 

[bhamv3]

I actually noticed my sense of direction deteriorating with age. Ten or fifteen years ago, I could visualize 3D spaces with uncanny accuracy. Nowadays I'm not hopeless, but I tend to get lost without a map.

Any of you guys notice something like that?

 

[Ravenpoe]

I learn directions by route memorization. Turn left at this road, then right at this road, then continue on blah blah blah etc. When coming back, I take the exact same path, only in reverse (but not while the car is in reverse, of course). I tend to do poorly in trying to think that my destination is this far west, so if I'm heading westbound, etc... I need a list of points to pass through instead.

 

[Rovewin]

I am pretty good most of the time about knowing where I am going. I don't have a GPS so when going to a new place I just look at the spot on a map before I leave and say ok its that away and take off. The only problems I have are those cities who build their roads in a matter I suspect is like they built the minotaur maze. "Ok I need to head east. hmm this road takes me east" *2 minutes later why is this road turning north. "Oh no turnoffs to get off of here. Ahh! Why is it turning west now thats not where I want to go." sob when the next street I finally get on does the same thing.

 

[Adam]

I have an excellent memory, but a terrible sense of direction so I can usually fake my way by remembering markers along the way.

 

[Dei]

I know where west is because I have a giant landmark. Beyond that, I know my way around places I have lived, but going outside of those areas I end up getting panicky, though I can remember places I have been as long as I drive them on my own once. I never remember how to get someplace if I am a passenger.

 

[Terrik]

I have an excellent memory, but a terrible sense of direction so I can usually fake my way by remembering markers along the way.

Pretty much what I do. Which leads people into having a false belief that I am a walking map.

 

[Cajungal]

I do better on foot than in a car. I guess I'm focusing so much on driving safely in a new place that I cat really log away where I've been, I guess. I might note a landmark here or there, but I do much better with a map. I get very nervous driving in new places.

 

[Yoshimickster]

I am not good for long distance travel without a GPS. I am basically the non swordsman version of Roronoa Zoro.

 

[jwhouk]

Once I'm familiar with an area, I'm pretty good. I'm decent with following signs and such. But if it's for going somewhere new (even within the city), I usually need to at least look at GoogleMaps to figure out how to get there or at least the best way to get there.

This for me.

 

[HCGLNS]

Just tell me the street address, and I will find it with just a regular map.

 

[Officer_Charon]

Me, personally I'm pretty decent with a sense of direction - I usually know the direction I'm travelling, and can maintain a rough mental map of where I'm at, and which way I need to go to get back to a main thoroughfare. My knowledge of direction, however, doesn't always follow the layouts provided by civic planners. Resulting in rage.

Talking about street addresses... trying to get an address out of a dirty is like trying to nail jello to a wall.

"Where do you live?"
"Over there."
"Over where?"
"Down that street, on the left."
"Which street?"
"That one there, in [neighborhood]"
"Motherfucker, if I don't get a number and a street out of you in 5 seconds, you're gonna need a tag-team partner."

Okay, that last one is usually internal. Usually.

 

[jwhouk]

Feel ya there, OC. You do not know how many of my kids give their address as 20th and North, or some such combination - instead of a building address.


Also - WOOHOO, 1,500 posts.

 

[PatrThom]

I chose infallible, but my powers are limited to daylight hours.
So long as I can see the Sun(/Moon), my cardinals are second nature. Too much cloud cover and I am adrift, though.

My written directions to a destination I have never been usually look a lot like this:

Hwy -> Exit#N (Street)
Road -> Road2 R (Mobil)
Road2 -> Street L
2222 Street (L)
(Phone number)

…that's usually all I need. Fits on the back of a cash register receipt. Only trouble is when I leave it behind, and if I know the area at all (or have driven the route before) I can usually still find my way unaided.

--Patrick

 

[Yoshimickster]

I am the worst person ever with Directions. One time I was driving home from Philly....I ended up in Monmoth County.

 

[Emrys]

I'm pleased to announce that I used a GPS when visiting my mom and got lost only once.