The additional cognitive load is worth it for me.
The thing that's valuable about having that "big picture" awareness of your city is in being able to second-guess the GPS when it gives you bad information, which is rare but it does happen because they're not perfect, or to know that the route it's chosen will only save you 10 seconds but will take you through a residential area with speedbumps instead of a larger road meant for through traffic.
Here is why I look up directions in advance in almost all situations:
* GPS is a distraction to maintaining awareness while driving, motorcycling, and bicycling.
* Navigational assistance does not help you when walking, taking public transit or taxis. Using GPS while driving prevents you from learning the layout of the place you are in which transfers to navigational competence for these other modes of transportation.
* You miss fun roads when following GPS navigation.
* GPS navigation is useless when planning long bicycle and motorcycle tours. I pick waypoints and routes between them in advance.
* GPS will route you into sketchy situations (like to phantom bridges) that you could have predicted by looking at a map.
* GPS does not take weather conditions into account when routing. People have gotten into floods (easy to see when looking at rivers and topo on a map in advance), stuck in snow, and have even died in the desert: http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/living/travel/article257...
I do not know very many competent drivers who rely on GPS navigation. I see plenty of "GPS zombies" obliviously plowing through intersections and ignoring crosswalks every day.
The most use I get out of having a GPS dash unit is on trails and off-roading in my truck or motorcycle, where there is usually no signage for forest roads and trails.
I'll defend using GPS on my phone to navigate. It provides a couple benefits that I really enjoy.
1. It knows what is ahead of me before I do. Specifically traffic, where it sometimes provides useful re-routing (although I dislike Waze's re-routing). Also, Waze's user reports can be helpful to warn about debris in the road, etc.
2. It has a consistent interface. When driving in an unfamiliar location, being able to look in one place to see if the next street is the one I need is way better than trying to find & read every street sign.
3. It has a voice interface, which I believe is safer than trying to read my handwritten notes or the printed google maps directions as a driver.
4. I appreciate seeing the current Speed Limit, displayed by Waze.
5. It greatly reduces the cost of missed turns. I hate seeing cars cut across multiple lanes of traffic (or even just one!) at the last minute to make their exit.
The GPS does make it easier to navigate. I think that frees up more of my attention to focus on other aspects of driving: watching the cars around me, looking for pedestrians, cyclists, and other hazards. I believe that actually increases my awareness of what's going on around me.
I agree that not everyone becomes a better driver when using GPS, but I think they could.
I really like to: Look up directions on Gmaps, and then jot down the relevant turns I need to know onto a piece of paper. The idea is that Gmaps tells me 20 or so turns, but I really need to only know a highway exit # and a few turns.
The awesome thing is that I've often _forgotten that piece of paper_! But because I went through the act of writing it down, it's stuck in my memory, and I'm usually able to figure it out without checking my phone.
I have a friend who's a great software engineer, and he has great visual/spatial awareness, but he always drives by GPS, and it's kind of embarrassing to sit in the car for two minutes while he gets directions ready to go. -_-
If I ever start making FU money, and fully self-driving cars are not yet a reality, I would definitely hire chauffeur(s) to drive me around. S/he could use a map, s/he so chooses...
If I look up where I'm going in advance, or use written instructions, I can generally backtrack to my origin without too much difficulty.
Most navigational aids are terrible at picking good routes to places outside a few very highly trafficked city.
Sure it might pick a good route if you just want shortest distance or least time but if you're willing to add 10sec to avoid a shitshow intersection you're gonna have to do that yourself.
A: I have trouble doing Z.
B: Many people have trouble doing Z! Interestingly enough, many X and Y also have trouble doing Z.
C: I'm able to do Z, and I can tell you that the benefits are worth the cost.
