I did this before cellphone and any sort of digital maps. It was hell. I memorized my city, that wasn't the hard part. The hard part was the people who didn't have their houses properly labeled with their address. Bonus points if they left their porch light off, as well.
"Why is my pizza cold?"
"Because I had to use complex mathematics to derive your house number among all of the unnumbered houses on your street."
”Because I had to use complex mathematics to derive your house number among all of the unnumbered houses on your street."
Wouldn’t even be able to do that in the neighborhood I grew up in. They numbered the houses in the order they were built/the lots were purchased and that wasn’t often next to each other lol. So 64, 67, 88, 90 are next to each other for instance.
The neighborhood I grew up in had a scheme that made sense once you were told what it was, but you'd never figure it out looking around.
There was a center point to the town where all addresses started, as you went away from that point in any direction the numbers got bigger. Numbers are 3 digits. Each block away from the center gets a new top digit, so the four blocks that touch one of the axis lines are 100, one block away is 200 etc. There's a North, South, East and West, so there can be a 200 North Something St. and a 200 South Something St. and they will occasionally get each other's mail.
One side of the street gets the even tens, the other side gets the fives. So 330 West Example Ave is across the street from 335 West Example Ave.
Many homes sat on multiple lots, and they skipped the unused lot numbers (the tens digit) and even then they would skip a number in between, so it's not unusual to see 205 East Example ave on the corner, and 235 East Example ave is next door.
Apartments or townhouses with multiple addresses on the same lot get a letter suffix, so you might have a 635B West Name St.
There are other context clues, like the North-South roads are "streets" and the East-West roads are "avenues". But still it would be difficult to grasp this system if you weren't told about it because "There's three houses along this block, why are the numbers 30 apart?"
The misnumbered/not numbered houses is still a big issue. GPS can only be relied on to get you in the general area, and even then sometimes it points you to the middle of a field.
My real gripe is apartments. People will often fail to give you the apartment number and even if they do, every single complex has their own numbering system and layout. There is one complex near here where the signs on the buildings are completely illegible at night due to the lights above them casting shadows. I hate having to go there.
The rare times a complex had a map of the complex when I was delivering was a godsend.
I once lived in a complex where Google had my apartment so wrong I'd have to stick gps coordinates in the delivery instructions.
Maybe one of these? https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/g37899122/best-handheld-spotlights/
Almost every apartment complex I have ever been in has followed the exact same numbering pattern.
A single building will have the floors be a letter with each unit being a number like 01 while a multi building complex will have the buildings designated as letters and will use 3 digit numbering schemes starting in the 100s. The first digit applies to floor while the second two apply to units.
If a complex has more than 26 buildings, that is when things become funky. The 27th building will likely be the AA building and it will either be the second building chronologically. Next comes BB and it will either be the 4th or 28th building, and so on.
Another thing they might do is just have those duplicate named buildings be sectioned off into a slightly more prestigious part of the property, gate it off and give it a name like Chateau @ Bronson Heights (assuming the apartment complex is named Bronson heights). If something like that is done, they will just completely restart the numbering convention.
Also, if a complex layout doesn't seem like it makes sense while being driven, say an E next to an S, imagine it with a top down view, they likely named left to right regardless of cul de sacs, so you should have a rough idea of where each building logically should be if not chronological by drive.
I delivered pizza for a few years in my early years, and poorly lit addresses were the absolute worst. I was delivering in the pre-smartphone but post mapquest era, and we had a computer in the shop with a touch screen (which was crazy at the time) map on it so you could figure out where we were going. But God forbid you ended up on a one way street looking for an address that was poorly labeled or unlit and you got somebody behind you laying on their horn... At some point I bought a 1000 candle spotlight that I used at night, and that got me pulled over several times because people would call the police about "a slow driving car shining a spotlight out of its window"... Like... For fucks sake. I'm just trying to deliver some pizza.
With that said, while working I smoked a bunch of weed, listened to a bunch of good music, and generally got tipped well so... It was a good time.
Nothing changed drove for Grubhub for awhile. Google maps isn't 100% correct and the amount of customers expecting food to be delivered with their porch lights off and no numbers on their homes. It was a shit show.
I had to visit a house the other week in a place I hadn't been before. Sat nav got me to the post code just fine only but the problem is it's one of those villages on a long road where everyone thinks they are special and don't need house number. Instead they all have names. It's horrid! Driving up and down real slow, blocking the road, while I read every bloody house name.
There were a couple of times where I just turned around and went back to the store with the pizza and said no one was home. That would have been one of those times.
In the before times, I was uniquely blessed with the ability to decipher these paper maps. I was seen as a god among men.
Alas, with the advent of GPS and navigation I am but a mere relic of days gone by, regaling my days of glory to whomever should have the ears to listen.
Ohhh wise one, tell us one of your many tales.
In my younger years my city used to publish a comprehensive road map that you could navigate by reading the road name index, figuring out its location on a greater city map grid, then finding its detailed map on a page listed on that grid. I literally used to help my parents navigate unknown roads like a Garmin before Garmin was even a thing. Every 2 years I would pick up the new edition of the map because the old one was getting ratty and out of date.
Good times.
I find it interesting that many people are apparently no longer able to grok maps at all. Even on their phones.
If there isn't a blue dot, they have no idea where they are. Nor how to go anywhere that isn't linked by a blue line.
It's a lost art indeed.
It doesn't help that everyone perpetually keeps their navigation apps oriented as "forward up", thus any sense of directionality is forever lost. They'll use my navigator with it set "north up" and get very confused at intersections. How is this such a difficult skill?
If there isn’t a blue dot, they have no idea where they are.
That's the neat part. Even with the app, they still don't. Only now they don't have to know.
I used to be amazed by the idea that there were people that couldn't do this. A good map/atlas has an index of street names and what pages grid cells they're on, and you can trace any familiar road trip with your finger (or a highlighter if you must).
Now I know that some people have a lot working against them. Some can't visualize things in their head, have no clue which way North is, or imagine what their current location resembles on a 2D map. There's also a kind of "navigation sense" that some people have and/or learn where your perception of space is in constant comparison to near and distant landmarks, even when indoors. People that can do these things are not afraid of liminal spaces, can easy find hidden rooms in structures, know exactly how big their car is, can improvise new routes between distant locations with ease, and being lost is a temporary problem at worst.
Edit: I had an ex that had very poor spacial perception, so that's a thing too. There was an argument over whether or not a moving box would fit through a doorway when carried. Critical thinking aside, a complaint was made when seeing the box sitting alone, packed, in the middle of an otherwise empty room. From outside the room, this person was unable to accurately compare the box's size in relationship to the doorway's dimensions, and insisted it was too big to leave the space. It was as if their mind was unable to pull together enough context to get an accurate frame of reference. I think this spacial perception ability applies to navigation as well, and may explain why some people struggle with it.
I feel sad. When I was younger I would always try and figure out North by the position of the sun, time of day and time of year, whenever I was in a new place. Its gotten so useless to do so I have forgotten how.
Last time I used these skills was in Norway. figured out North while walking around Tromso by looking at the Satellite Dishes.
My partner and I have been together since before Google maps. On holiday she gets is lost, I find the way back. It makes for a nice way of seeing a town.
Of course now that "finding your way back" involves typing the location into your phone, anyone can do it and it becomes more of an affectation to use satellite free navigation
I guess I'll take comfort knowing it's still a useful skill for some video games... but even those are becoming increasingly simplified
At least it'll come in handy when society collapses.
The NAVIGATORS will rise again!
I feel ya. Navigation by paper maps was my specialty. Now I'm a soldier without a war, relegated to shit posting on the Internet.
I got asked the other week how I managed to drive places without satnav or Google. I suddenly felt old.
for real! I'll use Google maps on my phone only if I'm going to a new place I haven't been to before and I don't have time to take a few moments to learn the route(s) ahead of time. that's its convenience. but I hate being on that digital leash, being scolded by my phone if I take a different road to see where it leads or to stop for gas or a break. so, I tend to drive everywhere in my day-to-day without it, and my friends think it's so weird.
one of my friends won't start driving to the grocery store a few blocks away from his house without turning on his Garmin. he's all "if I take a wrong turn I don't want to have to pull over to look at the map!" like he can't just turn around and get back onto the simple route he usually takes? same friend is among 3 of my friends who get visibly anxious when I drive them places without GPS and will pull up their phone in the passenger seat to "get directions for me". had to tell all 3: "don't give me directions unless I ask for them. I know where I am and where I'm going, I don't need you telling me to make a turn 60s before each one."
Yeah i never looked into getting any kind of delivery job solely due to the idea I'd need to be able to find my way around the town I've lived in my entire life. I could get lost going to the grocery store and it hasn't moved in, like, two decades.
I grew up in a time when you had to remember things, like where things were. In fact, for decades, I managed to do that. Suddenly, in 2007, I suddenly forgot where everything on the entire planet was.
Crazy!
I have a friend like this. Born and raised in his city. Put him on his feet in the CBD and turn him 180°, dude's immediately lost.
me with my aphantasia
And now they use door dash and it takes two hours to arrive cold and spit on.
And cost you more in fees and tips than the increased cost of the food itself.
But the companies running these softwares now make a huge profit, while the restaurants and delivery drivers earn less. So it’s better this way for their billionaire investors
They were distant allies to the masters ..... Taxi cab drivers ... who literally hold mental maps of the entire city they worked in and they could figure out how to get to where in ten different ways without the help of any paper map or digital system.
I drove a taxi and dispatched for a couple of years back in the mid '80s. For ease of use, Street Guides were a drivers best friend, because they just gave you concise directions from the closest main road. For instance, if I wanted Elm street, I would find it quickly alphabetically, and it would tell me something like "Runs south from Main St, two blocks east of First Ave." The driver would mainly just need a decent understanding of the main roads and how the numbering system for addresses worked, and they could just flip through it pretty quick without having to spread out a big map. The whole city fit into a neat little paperback book.
London and Tokyo taxi drivers are the apex... the map apex... the mapex (pronounced MAY-pex)?
"Take me to that hotel that's in front of a pub, I think it's called The Fox & Hounds... I think it's between a park and a Tube station", and the crazy bastard could figure out exactly where you meant, even though there are multiple pubs named The Fox & Hounds in London.
Take me from where I am to where I'm not
The taxi driver knows where he is at all times. He knows this because he knows where he isn't.
Wherever you go, there you are.
For those that are interested, I present the studies:
Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers
Everyday taxi drivers: Do better navigators have larger hippocampi?
We had a map of our delivery area on the wall. Maps like this have an index of street names on one side, with XY coordinates to find them on the map. Before leaving with the pizza, you look at the map (if you weren't familiar with the area) and get an idea how to get there. The longer you work there, the less you need to look at the map.
The 30 minutes or it's free deal really became dangerous and was discontinued. Still, learning the city map by heart and combing through unlabeled houses was impressive.
The number of pizza drivers just sending it through 4 way stops was crazy
The thing to keep in mind here is that each such pizzeria had a specific territory it staked out. There was an effective radius from every location, and the drivers were often very experienced with that chunk of town. I also recall wall-mounted maps near the phone so they could easily tell the customer to call a closer Domino's or Pizza Hut over if they were out of range. So after a while, you just learn the region, memorize the street names, and off you go. Finding a house number was the only real risk.
Advertising was also typically done door-to-door with flyers and fridge magnets, along with phone numbers for YOUR local franchise. As a franchise owner you'd have your family or hire some kids to canvas every so often. I suppose that helped with any confusion, but there was nothing keeping you from getting a hold of the wrong number from the phone book or a friend.
With GPS navigation everywhere, I'm betting that drivers can range further than ever before. The calculus is probably more like "google says you're 40 minutes out right now, so no", than "you're not one of our customers."
I was one of those summer "crew" kids! It was fun, easy work at the time. Always wanted to move up to phones, but there weren't openings. (bear in mind, it was my first year of HS, my goals were low)
So long as they could "Avoid the Noid."
Man what a wind string of events with those advertisements. Someone on a Creative team came up with a silly mascot, ends with pizza shop employees being held hostage at gunpoint.
Did that job for a summer. We had a huge map on the wall of our district. Holy shit, what a change.
No, that's still there. They use GPS but knowing where you're going is always better.
And these days the waiting time is 45 mins. minimum.
because population has increased and everyone has become fat & lazy, therefore increased demand for pizza home delivery
It's even worse with shit like door dash and all those services.
I did this for more than ten years ask me anything
Why do kids like Chex
Because the texture allows it to perfectly absorb and mingle with all the detritus between the couch cushions for additional layers of flavor.
Most memorable call?
Definitely an extremely drunk group of college girls who seemed to be doing some hazing ritual which involved molesting the pizza boy. I'm not 100% sure exactly what was going on, but the person who answered the door had her tits out and woman behind her was on all fours spreading her cheeks (just wearing underwear), slurring something about giving her the tip. I was solicited to pick which one I preferred.
It didn't actually go anywhere. Once I cast my vote their attention moved on to something else and they offered me a shot and a beer (which I took, because college, poor decisions, etc) and they said I could hang out but it was all a bit too sloppy drunk for my taste so I just left mildly confused and slightly horny.
Why is Nicolas Maduro working at an old time Domino's Pizza franchise?
Worked pharmacy delivery for years starting in high school, just before smartphones, and I still don't use GPS. Basically just map to nearest main intersection and remember their street name and the one before it.
It's literally the same but now the phone sometimes messes up the delivery too, not just the guy
Imagine missing your turn in the route you memorized and having to pull over for 10 minutes to try to find the way back- or I assume that's what happened, when I was a kid my mom just went to the library to print Google maps directions. And they were almost always wrong
Big Hiro Protagonist vibes
"The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed sub-category. He's got esprit up to here..."
You also had fewer issues with incorrect orders and not actually having your order delivered wasn't even a thing.
Technology is supposed to make things better, but this is one area it definitely has made worse.
It's not the technology, it's the franchise owners not paying enough to keep quality staff.
They still do that here. Not every Dönerladen has an app, only chains have dedicated apps. Some shops have websites with an online order possibility, but it's mostly calling.
The driver probably uses Google maps though
Yes, but they only deliver in s radius of 3 villages anyways. You can learn to navigate that turf quite quickly, I bet.
I did this not too long ago in 2011. Lol
Deliverators!!
at the home I grew up in, they were never able to find me by then. So I almost always got free pizza.
I feel sorry for those teenagers and young adults that lost their jobs over the manager and the maps being stupid. I lived in one of the oldest sections of town, but for some reason none of the maps that pizza place had were up to date on that area.
Oblig Thomas Guide comment
Fat shits.
I tried to get a job once as a pizza delivery driver, but they were like "Sorry, but your vehicle must have a reverse gear"
I didn't realize they were prejudice against trans!
