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Paper trail: For some, print maps are still the only way to get around [The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review](Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 14--Don't clean out that glove box just yet! There's still a place for the old-school way of guiding us from point A to point B, say fans of paper maps who aren't quite ready to assign them to the transportation museum. Even in this age of GPS, Google Maps and other tracking systems, paper continues to be used for sole guidance by some and as a complementary component of a road trip by many. The maps serve as a backup when the electronics go down or a road is unexpectedly closed. They give a view of the "larger structure" of the route, says Cranberry resident Wayne Brinda. Brinda works in Bradford as director of secondary education at the University of Pittsburgh there. "If I want to take the scenic route to Bradford, I use a paper map. It gives me a better idea of where I am and where I'm going. If I put in 'Pithole,' (a ghost town in Venango County), gosh knows where the GPS would send me," he says. Paper maps also are used in the classroom at Pitt Bradford to teach map-reading skills, which, he adds, are unfortunately diminishing. J.R. Richard, 64, of Latrobe, a retired professional driver and motorcycle-safety instructor who grew up with paper maps and still prefers them, doesn't doubt that. "If you ask a younger person who has been using Garmin-type devices for directions, they can't tell you how to get from here to there because they don't pay attention to landmarks when they travel," he says. On a paper map, he says, he can see at a glance the direction, towns and topography of his trip. Paper affinity Brinda, 64, believes that an affinity for paper has a relationship to a person's age, with 60-somethings being more likely to embrace paper than 20-somethings. "Because, for years, the maps worked," he says, except, "when trying to refold them in the front seat of a Chevy four-door sedan with no air conditioning." "We can go anywhere with a map. If they ever stop making maps, we will be in deep trouble," says Candy Straub, 67, of Monroeville. "A map never told me to make a left turn when we should have gone right." When Straub retired, she traveled for three years with her husband, Dennis Straub, from 2009 to '11. "We purchased city map guides for every city we planned to visit and found ways to go in strange cities that their residents probably didn't know about," she says. "We have a city map for Pittsburgh and can get around all tunnel construction. With maps, we also don't have to worry about streets with the same name. Another benefit of using maps is that they are so detailed." "Is there something besides paper maps?" quips Betty Smail, 62, of Gilpin, Armstrong County, who has traveled extensively, including all 50 states, most Canadian provinces and in parts of Europe. When she opened the door of her vehicle at one rest stop, her paper map fell out and started to blow away. "I said, rather loudly, 'Quick, grab the GPS, it's blowing away,' " she recalls. "No trip is a good trip until you return home with your stack of highlighted maps all having holes in them from being folded and refolded a million times and a million different ways," the retired banker says. She will admit to using Google to search for lodging, precise directions and the location of a building or the focal point of a journey. But she still remembers the day she drove her new car home from the dealership, less than a mile away, testing the GPS. "I have the car in my garage and the GPS voice is telling me that I'm going the wrong way and to make a safe and legal U-turn," she says. "There is a reason I like paper maps." A reliable backup While many American Automobile Association members have gone mobile, there are more than a few who still drive the "paper road" on their trips. "The need for mapping and routing information remains strong, but now our members have more options for the way they receive and use their travel information," says Teresa Thomas, director of public affairs for the Pittsburgh-based AAA East Central. AAA members continue to request and receive customized printed TripTiks, along with sheet maps and TourBook guides from their local AAA office, she says. They also have the option to use TripTik Travel Planner at aaa.com and the AAA Mobile app for maps, directions and other trip-planning resources. Keeping a physical map or TripTik in a vehicle for back-up is always a good idea, Thomas says. "There is always the possibility of service interruptions along a route that can make digital systems unusable. A paper map can help you find a detour if your route is unexpectedly blocked," she says. Susan Catalano of Penn Township, Westmoreland County, and her friends and family always hit the road with "Jack." That's the name they lovingly gave to their GPS. "Jack is the crazy member of our family. We talk to him and yell at him a lot," Catalano, 49, says. "Like my late father, he never seems to want to take the same route twice. Even if you are going to and from a place, Jack will take you there one way and bring you home a different way." Her mom, Pat Musiak, likes to use paper maps. So, before one trip, Catalano stopped at AAA and secured them so her mother could follow along while traveling. Catalano also printed out a few personalized Google Maps. "Turns out, they were life savers," Catalano says. "Jack decided we were to drive back to Rochester from Canada taking the scenic backroads, and we were soon lost, in the dark. Paper maps to the rescue. We plotted a way using the maps onto a major highway. You should have heard Jack yelling, 'Do a U-turn' when we ventured off his preferred path over and over again." Frequent GPS user Elizabeth Dell, 35, of Highland Park says she uses GPS all the time but tries not to rely on it. Good thing. It once tried to kill her, she says. "It wanted me to drive off a cliff because the road it wanted me to go on was at the bottom of the cliff." Then, it wanted her to drive through a graveyard despite the fact there were no roads. "Needless to say, we stopped using that GPS after that," she says. As for paper maps: "It doesn't take much for a Pittsburgh paper map to become obsolete with construction here lately," she says. "It's good to remember that no technology will ever be able to replace the knowledge in your own head. Nothing will replace a good working knowledge of the area you're driving in, and, for a lot of people, a good place to get that picture in your head is to look at a paper map," she says. "Humans have come to doubt their sense of direction because of GPS, but we need to remember that sometimes GPS is wrong. When in doubt, follow street signs. They are usually right." Lawrenceville artist Ron Donoughe, 55, says paper maps are his "backup system" and suggests that GPS does have one gender advantage: "With GPS, we men don't have to be humbled by asking directions." For his project to paint every neighborhood in the city, Donoughe has printed out close-up views of the streets to make it easier to navigate and make notes on paper. "The city maps from 100 years ago used beautiful typography; some of it was hand-lettered. Every page had an aesthetic," Donoughe says. "What you see now is very mundane in comparison." Dell sees old paper maps as an art form in and of themselves. "I love old maps, especially if you can find one of a place that is special to you," she says. "It's like a piece of your history, and it's in this beautiful, streamline format that just draws the eye." Objects of beauty Maps can be beautiful objects, full of lively colors hand-applied at the time of printing, says Kurt Shaw, 47, owner of Shaw Galleries, an antique map and rare print shop Downtown. More than half of his business is in antique maps. People buy them for historical, genealogical and travel interests, among other reasons, he says. "Most have an interest that relates to their lives or personal history to some extent," says Shaw, who is also art critic for Trib Total Media. They decorate their homes or offices, filling entire walls with several maps grouped around family or travel themes. "I often think of maps on paper as akin to wristwatches," Shaw says. "Many people don't wear wristwatches today because they can check the time on their smartphones. And those that do are buying more elaborate or larger watches as a fashion statement, or perhaps collecting antique wristwatches for the same reason." Because maps on paper are, in fact, historical artifacts, they gain in value as time passes, primarily because of scarcity, Shaw says. He grew up relating to maps on an intimate level, the way his mother, a travel agent and tour creator for Greyhound in the 1960s, had. When she gave him a Garmin GPS for Christmas about a decade ago, he transitioned away from paper for functionality. "Now, I can't imagine using a printed travel map for a road trip," he says, "but I still see the wonderful sense of overview, that ability to immediately see the points of origin and destination on my travels." Rex Rutkoski is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4664 or [email protected]. ___ (c)2014 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.) 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