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Just because it has a similar population density does not make it a valid comparison. Look at the two maps below, Nearly a quarter of their 5.4 million people live in Helsinki alone. If all of them have 100mbs connections or better it will be easy to have an average speed 5x the USA even if those in rural areas have no internet connection at all. I know it is popular to hate on the US for doing a crappy job rolling out broadband but we really have to stop comparisons to countries that are distinctly different. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi... http://education.randmcnally.c...

You don't see legislation to outlaw paper maps, coffee cups, makeup, food, etc from vehicles.

Part of the reason, I think, is that while those things are a distraction, people don't tend to "drive through" them.

I've had friends of mine that "drive the GPS." They don't watch the road, they watch the GPS. If a turn is coming up, they're not looking ahead, they're looking at the GPS to see where to turn.

Paper maps are a good example. When I first moved to California in the early 90s, I was introduced to something called "The Thomas Guide."--essentially a book of maps with all the local streets. Very handy. If you had an address and a city, you could look up where it was an how to get there. You'd write down the directions on a little piece of paper and then you'd head off. If you got lost, you'd pull over and pull out the Thomas Guide and figure out where you were and figure out where you'd gone wrong, re-orient yourself, and get back on the road.

The point being, you would pull over to do these things. You didn't see people driving along staring at a Thomas Guide.

I somewhat agree, though, that there are lots of people who figure "There oughta be a law!" So some representative drafts up a law to make our roads safer for the children (because, Dear Lord, Won't somebody think of the Children). We already have laws against reckless driving, but no, we need new laws to combat this scourge.

My Sprint phone came with a trial version of this Rand McNally application. It was really cool while it lasted. Had a little 'locate me' feature that would pop up a map of my exact location. I played with it while the trial version lasted but refuse to pay Sprint 5 bucks a month to keep using it. I really wish the new Google Maps mobile app supported GPS.

I'd like to see Cahokia push *somebody* into making a trip planning/mapping client for this. Yes, *if* you have WiFi or a phone with GPRS|EDGE, you could use Google Maps.

If.

You.

Like.

To.

Wait.

But a local mapping client on this would be great. Granted, I somehow doubt that Cahokia could get Streets and Trips or Street Atlas, but if they partnered with Rand McNally or somebody like that they could get a 1G flash drive with the map data on it.

Yeah, I also keep the dead tree version in my car for long trips, emergencies (never can tell WHERE you'll wake up after a 4 day coke/liquor binge *), etc. I actually meant I use www.randmcnally.com for online directions, instead of MapQuest, Google, whatever else people use. I was just too lazy to type out the HTML tags, so instead wound up having to type a whole 'nother post to clarify. There is probably a lesson in there somewhere, I'm too lazy to look for it.

* my mom does not read /.

A lot of google features are nice (the calculator) but not really a replacement for dedicated services. Personally I prefer Rand McNally maps, because they are hella up-to-date.

We don't?

I like Rand Mcnally's site. In my experience it often gives more detailed descriptions than Mapquest. Oh and I used Mapblast too before it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the underworld.

I have a cheap NavMan GPS receiver for my palm III (bought when Rand Mcnally dropped the price to $50) which reports the time about 5 minutes off!
I'm using Compass from gpspilot.com to view the NavMan's data. The Lat/Lon are reported correctly, as is the altitude. As such, the heading and speed calculations also come out correct. What's really odd to me is that it works at all if it doesn't know the correct time -- I thought that's the whole idea behind GPS.

Please don't try to blame my watch for the problem -- I live and work in Boulder and set my watch to the definition of Correct Time.
For a good time, call 303-499-7111.