Category: Daily Living
When walking a route for the first time what do you prefer? Asking directions? Having someone walk with you? GPS? Are there certain factors that affect how you decide to plan and execute a route?
Depends on your travel skills. You can't just ask this question without that information.
If you have good skills you just ask directions, or you pretty much know where you are going except for a few details, so you just go.
Now if you have kind of good skills you would be best getting someone to walk with you.
If you have poor skills you might need someone to walk with you more then once.
It just depends.
The hardest part in any new area is finding out the streets' names and getting the general layout. Honestly, I'd now probably use Ariadne GPS to look at the layout first, and then it might be nice to actually use GPS when running around.
When I lived where I could do that I had no GPS so just generally gave it a go the first few times, ironed out what may have gone wrong and took it from there. GPS could solve quite a few mitigating factors. And of course, for you zealots out there, we all know 'it doesn't do everything', as you're fond of saying for any number of tools. A hammer doesn't do everything either, but for what it does do, it's extremely useful.
I would prefer somebody to walk with me to learn the route, but that usually only happens once in my case. I learn new routes pretty fast.
i usually have someone shows me the route at first so i can get a feel for the area then have them shadow me but only help if i'm having problems. Usually can pick up a route pretty fast that way
When I started walking from my apartment to classes last fall, I had just moved in and didn't have anyone to show me the root.
I literally moved in on sunday and started classes on monday.
I navigated the root with my good old kapten plus.
I got lost a couple times, but eventually just decided to learn the root myself.
After a couple of trips, i was pretty legit with the root.
It should be noted that this is in a smallish town, and not a big city. Also, I've had other roots where i wasn't so successfull with this self teaching method, but it is possible to figure out on your own where you're going with just a gps and a guide dog.
On another note, I'm so glad that I've retired my kapten plus. That thing was a serious pain in the ass.
Now that the iphone 4s is capable of using the russian sat nav system as well as gps and cell towers, the gps is superbly accurate.
A combination of navigon and ariadne are supremely useful.
Hopefully in ios 6 this stuff will all be integrated with your contacts and address book, not to mension complient with siri.
That's gonna be the next big deal in blind travel. No button pressing, just tell siri to give you walking directions to the nearest pizza place and you'll be golden... or so i can hope.
1) O&M if available.
2) Guide-human (family, friend) if available.
3) Text directions on Google Maps, compared to Bing Maps and Mapquest.
4) GPS to double-check directions as you move.
5) Ask directions as you go along.
Shyness is for people who don't have appointments. If you need help, ask. If someone is too busy to help, they won't - usually there's someone who doesn't mind taking a second to confirm or correct you. Just be clear, crystal clear, about where you're trying to get and where you think you are.
for learning routes to classes and things, more so when I was new to campus, I prefered a sighted guide first. Despite having no sight, I'm a visual person, and I need to form a visual outline in my head first to really understand where I'm going. After I walk to the destination once, I'll then walk it with my cane to learn landmarks, sidewalk changes, that sort of thing.
PS, I'm becoming increasingly more anxious to get a guide dog. I'm beginning to understand just how benificial they can be!
Yeah, all of these methods have been helpful for me. I have found that the only problem with doing a route for the first time with the GPS is sometimes you run into things like missing sidewalks or confusing crosswalks which can't really be detected by a gps, but as was said, they definitely have their use.
I prefer to have someone walk it with me the first time so they can tell me any unique aspects of the route. I'm moving in to my new apartment tomorrow, and Chuck from GDB IS COMING friday to help me with the route to campus. I'm pretty confident I could do it myself, but would rather have someone there the first time anyway. Since Chuck is in the area, and it's free for me to have him come out, why not? Makes me more comfortable and less stressed on the first day of classes. lol
it really all depends. if gps can get me there then great that and asking directions if I need it probably so, if not, well o&m works too. I try the gps thing first though being thrown in a completely new area like I did a year ago was completely frightening. new city, didn't know anyone, didn't know the campus, or how the buildings were laid out, then I got a little less shy and did my job and explored.