Not knowing your city/town well

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I have a question: is there anyone else who also doesn't know really well all the crooks and nooks of their hometown (even a small one, like mine) due to the fact of their not leaving house often and not attending social events like ones organised in nightclubs, pubs and the like? I live in our town for 21 years, since I was a child, nevertheless I often don't know the names of streets for example, when someone mentions them at my presence, nor do I know what some characteristic buildings, offices and so on are located.

I'm not one of these people. I live in a large city and know it very well, seems to be more than most people I know. Any other town or city I have lived, I have got to know it really well. I live in a place, I make sure I get to know and explore it very well.

I don't have that; in fact I can't stand it if I don't maintain a "map in my head" of the city. I grew up in Los Angeles, and you literally could drop me off blindfolded in any place in Los Angeles, and I could tell you exactly where I am. Night or day, in the fog. I can't say the same for Dallas, but I do know basically most major streets, and in what order they come. So for instance, if I were to be dropped off in Dallas someplace, I'd only have to go a few blocks in either direction, and I'd figure it out.

Charles

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Last edited by Quixotic on 21 Nov 2011, 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This happens to me,too.
Exactly everything you described. I live in a small city for over 20 years (since my childhood) and I don't know it; I don't know its street names, its public places, pubs, restaurants...etc. Since I don't go out often and even if I do I don't think about the streets name or anything while I'm outside, I just do what I need to do. It doesn't seem like relevant information to me to know it like most people do. This doesn't mean I'm totally lost whenever I go out.

I think there are different kinds of spacial information and different ways to store it in your brain.
There is visual information like maps but there can be others like photos. There can be information about the quality of a place to yourself but also to others and there can be information about the function of a place to you and to others....and so on.
So you could store information in words, in sketches, maps, photographs,...categorize it into functions, qualities, sights, smells, heights,distinctiveness...etc. and finally deem it as important information for yourself (and others) or not. And there are more ways to look at this.

Some people are blind to physical geography and go by the distinctiveness of places and buildings to make their ways. Others have a grandiose memory for spatial information, as well.

I've lived in two cities my whole life and don't really know either of them. The only street names I know are the one my house is on and in the other city I know the street my mom's house is on (I used to live there). I don't go out very much and I hate driving, so the only places I know are the way to my mom's house, the way to my friend's house, the way to school, and the way to the mall (video game store, electronics store, movie theatres).

Would you work out where you are by sound then?

I know my town off by heart, and another town I get the bus to where I work I know off by heart too.

I only know about half of my town because I live in the mountains and my hometown has so many winding, little streets. It hard to memorize all of them compared to being in a city in which all the roads are pretty much uniform.

I'm the same way. I am a walking atlas. Any town I move to I know the layout of the roads within days batter than people who have lived there their whole lives. But I'll barely know the street names, it's all stored as visual information in my head. I love maps and I study them constantly. Google earth is my favorite program.

You could knock me out, stick me in a trunk, and drop me off anywhere in North America (give me a credit card to pay for things) and I could find my way home easily.

Thing is, I know it all from maps. I have lived in my city for more than 3 years, but I rarely go more than 2 miles from home. I'd know my way around the roads, but I have no idea what any of the local attractions & businesses are. But give me an address and I'll find it. Also If I drive somewhere once, I will always be able to get back there.

I'm almost a savant with my sense of direction.

I just moved to a big city. Not only do I not know how to get anywhere I'm in my room so much I forget that I'm actually living in the city with three people.

I live in a very small town, so it's hard not to know the areas of it---especially since I've lived here all my life. But there are roads around my town that everyone seems to know well that I do not know well at all.

I live in a suburb of a large city. I know my local area and the city very well, much better than most I think. I'm one of those people on TripAdvisor who visits the forum for my city regularly and gives advice about public transport, things to see and do, etc.

I've always been terrible with directions, but I'm getting a little better. Before I started working as a pizza delivery person, I never really got to learn the street names in my home town. I never had a reason to. I see landmarks, and I remember those. Street names are irrelevant when you're a kid, or at least they were for me, and they still are to an extent. I generally just get around by landmarks. When I learn a street name it's because I went somewhere for the first time, and I got directions to get there which had street names listed. If someone's just sitting in the car with me, telling me "okay, turn right here," etc. then I just learn with landmarks.

No, it's more a matter of direction per the sun, or by the direction of the breeze, the direction of the tilt of the trees, and/or a combination. Honestly I can't explain it. I just get a feeling when I start going the wrong way. Last year when I drove to Dallas from LA by a new route, and was following my own written directions, I came across a place along the I-30 where they had done a realignment of the interstates (BIG screwed up project). I missed the interchange for the North Tollway, and I somehow knew it right away, and I got off the freeway in a part of town I'd never been, and made my way right back to the Tollway, and was back on track. And in Los Angeles, it's easy to figure out exactly where you are, by looking at two addresses.... Case in point: If you are in front of a building with the address 11565, and you look on a cross street with the address of 6800, you are in North Hollywood. You couldn't be anywhere else, because there is no 6800 block west by 11500 block south, and there is no 11500 east at all, so that leaves only 11500 west by 6800 north, which would be someplace near Vanowen Street and Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood. And the Los Angeles city street signs are blue, while other suburban cities on the same address grid are other colors. That's how I'd figure it out in LA, in addition to the other things I cited first.

Anyplace I've ever been, I'd be able to get around. I've only been to Philadelphia once, and that was nearly 30 years ago, and I still remember clearly the layout of the streets. I only need to look at a map once, when driving somewhere new to me. I can then return home, or go there again years later, and not bother with any map.

Now if I could trade that gift for being able to find my way around a social event or party.................

Charles