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The problem with that reasoning is that GPS/compasses in phones are often wrong, so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north, so you need to turn left to start heading west on Broadway. This is especially true if you're in a dense area where GPS gets especially confused, or if you're trying to catch an Uber (since now there's two potentially faulty GPS's in play).

I often have to zoom in obnoxiously far to read the damn street names. It's quite frustrating and could easily be solved with some sort of tap to display name feature.

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> so it helps to have the spacial awareness to know that you're on the north west corner of Delancey facing north

Most of the people I've questioned on this struggle to figure out where the north west corner is or what direction north is etc. And yet they can still navigate in dense urban environments perfectly fine.

How? Landmark based navigation. All you need to do know is [some big landmark, like central park, or the sea] is behind you. Now to get to your destination, you want store X on your right and move forward. Turn right at store Y, etc. This is the reality of how a lot of people navigate and I think the new map reflects this.

> Landmark based navigation. All you need to do know is [some big landmark, like central park, or the sea] is behind you. Now to get to your destination, you want store X on your right and move forward.

Yes, but one very important and ubiquitous landmark in urban environment is an intersection. Two roads intersecting create an unique point that's easy to find (follow one of the roads until an intersection, then verify by checking street name plates). It's exactly for this reason you'd want a map to always show you street names.

Google Maps doesn't. It also doesn't reliably show most other landmarks you'd care about, like stores or monuments. Google Maps just plain sucks at being a map.

I don't particularly like the elision of street names myself, but is GPS on modern phones really often wrong? Perhaps it's more an issue in rural areas or super tightly packed areas like SF or New York? In LA, GPS is kind of crazily accurate, and other than routing choices that can seem strange, it seems to work perfectly.

Compasses on phones are definitely a crapshoot though.

GPS has issues near skyscrapers ("urban canyons") because the signals reflect off buildings and don't arrive at the proper times. You can correct for this with multiple frequencies or if you have an accurate map of nearby building heights.

The only place I’ve had severe gps issues was when visiting NYC. Too many tall buildings. Very little line of sight to a satellite. Plus reflections from buildings. It was frequently off by entire blocks. Found ourselves frequently ignoring the blue dot on the map.

I do encounter compass issues all of the time though. Almost always it starts perpendicular to where it should.

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