• solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
    111·
    2 months ago

    in the 80s you could call AAA and tell them where you’re planning to go on a road trip and they would send you a spiralbound roadmap of the route with gas stations, hotels, and construction zones highlighted

    • 👍Maximum Derek👍@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      47·
      2 months ago

      Part of me still misses TripTiks. It was fun to go through them ahead of trips and always have that nicely printed, spiral bound book with you on the road.

      At some point in the 90s they automated TripTiks with the idea that you’d print them at home yourself. It was all the same info but the magic was gone.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.netOP
      23·
      1 month ago

      My grandma actually recommended I do this last year. I was already contacting AAA about some other thing, and jokingly brought up road trips. They went, “Yeah we can help!” I was kinda adorable.

    • rhacer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      My father was an itinerant minister. He traveled all over the country. We made great use of TripTik (I think that’s what it was called).

    • LogicalDrivel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      31·
      2 months ago

      GeoGuessr person:“ok, now which directions are the shadows pointing? Any wildflowers or birds in the area?”

      Caller: “I’m just looking for a gas station”

  • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
    43·
    2 months ago

    How widespread was this? I grew up in the 80s/90s and pre GPS we just had a map in the car. I’ve never heard of such a hotline until seeing this post.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
      8·
      1 month ago

      Maybe a call centre operated by map producers, intended more for questions about routes and conditions rather than “take the third left” kind of navigation.

    • mycodesucks@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 month ago

      Yeah, it sounds like the kind of thing you could do but would pay out the butt for as a private service. Road map books and asking directions were my go-to.

      Of course, post-internet but pre-GPS there was always mapquest.

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
      21·
      2 months ago

      Rest area payphones. Its why most rest areas have a huge blown up atlas map these days

      edit: and as a note, the death of the rest area payphone is a huge problem some places. you ever look at a coverage map for west virginia? you break down or get lost out there and you’re totally fucked

      • rhacer@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        Yes, but what gorgeous country to get fucked in! When my wife PCSd from Long Island to Fort Knox, we drove through that country several times.

        She would also spend a lot of time at Fort Lee (now Gregg-Adams) and the drive from Fort Knox to Fort Lee also crossed amazing parts of WV.

    • Jivebunny@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 month ago

      This is actually a map of the Netherlands and I’m from there. I’m also old enough to remember a time without mobile phones. This was probably the call centre for triple AAA, in Dutch the ANWB. We had these emergency telephone poles along the highways. When stranded (car broke down) and without a map you could easily call aid through them with these phones, which they also knew where they were, for easy dispatching.

      • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        1 month ago

        I’m also dutch, and Im pretty sure you couldn’t call for route advice from the ANWB poles. Or at least, you couldn’t in the later years, maybe it was different in the 60s.

        It does make a lot more sense these people are planners, not general navigation advisers.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
    21·
    1 month ago

    For a good time, call 1194.

    This graffiti was seen, around 1993, in various toilets, referencing the national talking-clock service.

    1194 == “On the third tone it will be 3:45 and 30 seconds, beep beep beeep.”

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
      8·
      1 month ago

      These still exist, except it’s not a number you call, it’s a shortwave station that you tune into.

      Check out http://websdr.org/ if you don’t have your own. From there you can play with various shortwave radios from around the world. The first one on my list is my favorite cause it picks up a lot of stuff.

    • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 month ago

      555-1212 was the number where I was.

      I still use it on websites that ask for my phone number for some gods unknown reason.

  • expatriado@lemmy.world
    14·
    2 months ago

    i can see this causing marriage arguments

    you should call the hotline John

    I got this Margaret!

  • hate2bme@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 month ago

    I lived in Chicago from 2004 to 2007 and NYC from 2007 to 2009 and I did not have a smartphone not even sure if they were around then. There was a number you could text the cross streets you were at and the cross streets you wanted to go to and it would give you step by step directions to get there with public transportation. I used it daily.

  • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
    7·
    1 month ago

    “Hot single navigators in your area waiting for you call – call now & let them guide you!!”

    (I had a car on early 2000s in which the oem satnav lady pronounced the local names of towns kinda extra seductively)

  • phorq@lemmy.mlEspañol
    4·
    1 month ago

    I’m getting Godzilla-nervous-system vibes from the front-most map, not gonna lie…

  • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
    52·
    2 months ago

    Sure we lost that particular job, but we also gained the job of driving around with a cam car collecting data. Then there’s who ever takes all those pictures and compiles them into street view. Sure its highly automated, but someone had to automate it…

    Imgine what the hunters thought when they lost their jobs to farms.

    Also rembered what community this was on after I typed all that out…