How hard is it to find a building? For some, very hard

[wagegoth]

Okay, no bashing, but the more "female" the brain, the more "directionally challenged." Yes, I'm female, but my brain is more male. I was the navigator from a young age, as I could read and interpret maps, while my mother had some difficulties.

I lived on a long road out in the country several years ago. As houses were built, they were numbered. So there was no orderly progression of numbers on the street. You could not go by the numbers to find a house. To find a house, you would narrow down the part of the road by the junctions it was between, then describe identifying landmarks, like the "big pine at the S curve" and "the second driveway at the half-mile straightaway past the second bridge."

[XCashier]

RC: Well yeah there's just one building in between them two, but I don't see no number on it. So how can I tell if it's yours?

"Actually that's Number 12 Grimmauld Place."

Slightly I grew up in Phoenix, the streets of which are a nice, simple grid, with odd-numbered houses on the south and east sides and even numbers on the north and west sides. So easy a child could figure it out.

Now, I'm living in a town where the streets go here, there and everywhere, wind like snakes throughout town, change names halfway across, dead end half the time and one-way the other half, and I still haven't figured out the numbering system. I think a drunk sadist mapped out the street system.

[Shards]

Now, I'm living in a town where the streets go here, there and everywhere, wind like snakes throughout town, change names halfway across, dead end half the time and one-way the other half, and I still haven't figured out the numbering system. I think a drunk sadist mapped out the street system.

Around here that's called Park Forest...
Sorry. There's a neighborhood in my town that is so amazingly twisted and confusing that if you don't have a plan to get where you want to go when you go in, you probably won't even be able to get out for a long time unless you have a very strong sense of direction like my dad and I have...

[BookstoreEscapee]

OMG! That sounds just like me! I can't read a map, all the lines and different colors just confuse me, and I'm horrible with directions from anything but good old Mapquest. My major problem is I have my own comfort zone where I like to drive. I won't use busy roads or roads with fast speed limits. It drives everyone I know nuts.

I am directionally challenged as well, but I'm not as bad as I used to be. I can read a map fairly well, but I do get nervous if I'm driving somewhere I'm not familiar with, especially if it involves major highways. Google Maps is my best friend, though. My trip to Rhode Island this fall involved weeks of mapping out the best route, and I had a set of directions for each place I needed to go while I was there, as well. (My dad did all the mapping, though. I tried not to pay too much attention until he decided on the best way to go, otherwise he'll show me every possible route in detail and just confuse me. He's like that )


My street has big gaps in the numbers (like 11, 19, 27, 31) but at least they all go from low to high, with odd on one side and even on the other. My aunt lives on a really long street, and from where I turn onto it, the numbers are going down to 4, then you pass a cul-de-sac and then it starts again at like 92 or something like that and they go up from there . And the one time I tried to go out a different way than I came in, I got hopelessly lost in the development.

[MonSqueek]

Im navigationally challenged so I invested in a Nav-man (portable sat nav system) its great. I tell it where I want to go and as Im driving it says "in 300 meters - turn left" and the best bit..... if I get lost, cant follow an instruction (for example road works) it re-routes me and just comes up with another solution.