66% of people cant read a map.

[bigpaul]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...tnavs.html

[BDG]

I think a lot more than that cannot read a map - maybe the 1/3 of people would look at a map, but I doubt that many could read it.

[Tarrel]

Reading it's one thing. Relating it to the terrain around you; that's a whole different ball game!

[Tigs]

i remember being taught to read a map as part of geography in the third year of junior school , its a skill that came in handy when i joined up

[NorthernRaider]

How many preppers can use a map and compass correctly and work out grid reference to 8 places etc , Very few I would imagine prolly just the ex military and expedition types.

[bigpaul]

maybe not, i cant do grid refs, but i can find which way to go with a map which seems to be more than most can, trouble is with sat navs they seem to send people the shortest route not neccessarily the easiest and in some cases they become unstuck, someone recently got washed away in a flooded ford cos thats the way the sat nav sent them.

[NorthernRaider]

Sat Navs can only ever be an extra aid, never the primary source of navigating for preppers, bushcrafters, military types etc, If I blindly followed mine I think i would have been screwed at least 4 times with it taking me down unsuitable routes, The bloody thing tried to direct my 6ft 6 wide van through a 6 ft wide tunnel in Darlington last year.

[bigpaul]

i have lost count of the trucks stuck down narrow Devon lanes cos they blindly followed the sat nav instructions! one got so stuck they had to lift it out by crane OVER the houses!

[Tartar Horde]

could the reason the vast majority of our population can't read a map be because, they just don't see them as relevant to today's life.
I believe they think road signs and roads are all they will ever need to get anywhere they need to be. Very few people would consider travelling across country and so consequently have never needed to use a map, they are lulled into a false sense of security believing that the infrastructure of modern life will be there to save them.

[Skean Dhude]

The story of the modern age. No need to learn the basics.