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...
I think you're wrong that GPS reduce your cognitive load. It reduces it in the short term, but in the long term you are always listening to and referencing an noisey/bright device. In the long run it's a tax, and so it hurts your ability to be an overwhelming safe driver. This is an N=1, but I'm 30, and I'm a bit of a fast driver, and I've never been in an accident.
People like you always talk about the GPS device being distracting, but how is that better than having no clue where you're going, or trying to read a giant paper map while you're driving and you've missed a turn and there's no place to pull over? You seem to basically be assuming that people should be able to memorize an entire map just by looking at it, and then somehow magically know which road is which even though the signage is frequently horrible. The real world doesn't work the way you think it does.
Sounds like a politically correct way of saying "you screwed up but the other guy had a 51% chance to do something that would have avoided the outcome but you had 49%."
Kind of like how in 100% of "oops I missed my turn" rear ending the second guy pays but the first guy deserves to be slapped for doing something dumb.
FWIW I agree with you on following GPS instructions being far from the optimum.
I didn't take it that way at all. It's very likely civilian is just a more defensive driver who understands a lot of risks can be minimized through awareness and the choices one makes.
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.