I just thought I would bring this up in Urban Preparedness because I have met a lot of people with no clue about it.
It is just something for some of us to think about if they have not thought about it already.

If you know how your streets are numbered and the main landscape features you stand a better chance of not getting lost.
So does your city number their streets, use the alphabet or is it a random jumble of oddly named avenues?
Is the main grid for your town north and south or at some weird angle? Does the grid change, or has it got a lot of those areas where the streets are laid out like a mess of spaghetti?
Are the lots numbered from south to north or from some topographical feature like a river?
Which side of the street are the odd numbers on?
Where are the major buildings located?
Where are the major obstacles located?

Like I said, just something to think about.

I have lived in the same city for all my life, so I know my way around town. Just in case, however, I do carry a city/county map with me.

I've always been dumbfounded by people I've met who didn't know their way around somewhere they've lived their entire life.

I've known people who couldn't manage to make it to work when the interstate got shut down without calling me for directions. You could pretty much blindfold me, drop me off anywhere around here, and I'd know where I was within a few minutes just by the landscape.

Minneapolis is on the grid system.a look at the roads in most of the state show the same lay out. i'm used to finding my way around by landmarks and my canoe buddy's tell me i'm really very good at recalling places we had been to many years before and finding my way without a map.having said that Minneapolis drives me nuts.when i ask directions i get told to go to "34th and 23rd and turn on 38th"--i have no idea where 34th is.my wife who lived in the city for many years does that to me and i have to ask the way by landmarks..near what store?school?--by the lake?..that pizza place?..i keep a map in the car but if i get lost or turned around i can always just make a few right turns and come back to my starting place..grids are good for that..when i was out East i thought the roads followed old cow paths!!..the area around Boston was a maze of winding roads!!

In some situations, knowing your way around can be critical. Haven't experienced it, and hopefully I never will, but I've been told street signs start to go away after a hurricane hits about Cat 4.

This could very much hurt emergency response.

One road in one road out in both directions, and on that road it splits off. And by way out I mean 40+ miles off the mountain... handful of ways off in both directions some 80+ miles to the highway. You don't want to make a wrong turn here...

This place was apparently designed by a drunk who was blindfolded and stood on his head, then spun around.

I understand the problems with streets into the hills except why they don't have signs. I know why the Copenhagen St. sign keeps disappearing, but if they attached a couple of live wires from the power pole, I'm sure it would stop.

And I understand why some of the roads disappear under silt in certain parts of the flood plain (esp after the floods).

On this side of the freeway, all streets end in SW, no matter which direction they go. On the other side of the freeway, Main St. W exactly parallels 2nd St. SW.

Old Hwy. 99 SE exactly parallels Wheeler St. N.

A street like 183rd can be broken into a dozen sections (dead-ends) and extend for a few miles. But a single length of road can have five different names.

Why would someone name one street Connor, and the next one O'Connor?

Triangles seem to be very popular in W. WA, since many towns are built on that design. Two right turns and you're back where you started, except you're now going the wrong way on a one-way street.

And the only local map is in the phone book.

Pack food and water when you travel around here!

(Portland is even worse -- I think there are only two places where you can make a left turn.)

Sue

It didn't have anything to do with me! Seriously!

I think Sue's planner migrated from the Norfolk, VA area. there's about 37 rivers (maybe I exaggerate, maybe I don't) that converge here, so peninsulas and bridges and tunnels to connect it all. The freeways are loosely based on a circle... 64, 164, 264, 464, 564, 664. I'm just now making sense of it after 3 months. I haven't found a map yet worth buying yet. It's annoying.

That being said, I'm pretty handy with landmark-driving too, but I tend to have big name roads in my head.

Back home in OC, CA, I could get you to nearly anyplace without a map, courtesy of driving an ambulance for 4 years. Of course, my landmarks were hospitals, nursing homes, etc...

The Dallas / Fort Worth area is mostly on a grid system, kinda. Just ignore the direction indicators on the highway signs, because they will not often match the compass. Example: SH121 leads E-NE to W-SW, but is considered a North / South freeway. Almost all of the freeways have three or more names, and any of said names are acceptable for use on addresses.

MAPSCO is the best mapping company out there, but they are limited to only a small number of cities. Nope sorry, Norfolk is not one of them.