SE23 Forum

Because neither England nor Scotland could be found in Europe.

Think about it!

I refuse to use these so called navigation items. Do a great deal of driving for work and often have to find new places in strange towns but use maps , common sense and ask the locals.
The navigation systems are a disaster . Times I have been meeting coleagues at strange addresses. I get there on time with maps, they ring up to say lost in field .
If Columbus had got Tom tom sure he would have found Penge not America

If we rely on these things we may lose our innate cognitive mapping ability to get around and then where would be be. ( ho ho). Get an A-Z, its cheaper.

I think Columbus may have had a prototype of the TOM TOM because he found America but he had set out for India.....

I've never had my A-Z recalled

when driving I rarely manage to get across London without taking a wrong turn. I would love to have a sat nav system of my own to help me get back on track. They are also very useful to tell you where you parked on long roads in Bordeaux or remote parts of Scotland, just pinpoint the position when you park, and then you can easily get directions back to where you were.

The only problem is when roads are closed and the sat nav insists that you use the road. I have found myself with absolutely no sense of direction in small villages, completely unable to do anything other than what the sat nav says to do.

I have a tom tom unit. In London I rarely, if ever, use it. Partly this is down to a broad familiarity with the places I am going, and partly it's because London is probably pretty well-signposted, and even if you do make one or two wrong turns, you can get to where you want to go pretty easily (if slowly).

Outside London, even just on a long motorway journey, it's can be a very useful addition to the information available in printed maps etc - personally I like to know exactly how far you have to go and how long it's going to take). And in line with the examples that Michael gives, abroad I have found it to be indispensable - particularly in rural France where the signposts are few (and sometimes contradictory).

The key thing is that these devices can provide valuable additional information, and if used properly, they make journeys faster and in some cases safer (having spoken directions is surely better than driving with an A-Z open on your knee?) and less stressful - for example, where you arrive in a town with which you are not familiar and you are trying to navigate through a convoluted one-way system.

Boom, boom. As a non footie-follower I can appreciate the joke..

And actually I agree with davdl and find them really useful outside of London. I recently took a trip that involved driving up to Scotland, down through the Lakes and to Wales, and we didn't get lost once. I don't think we would've fared that well without tom-tom..