How can I improve on my mapping skills?
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adamjh3
Forum Culinary Powerhouse
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Practice, practice, practice.
Go online and find a random address in your response area, map it out in the map book and write down the directions
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Practice.
When your posted map calls that are toned out for other units.
Practice.
Learn your coverage area.
Practice.
Don't try to find the street right away, find the closest major intersection and tell your partner to head that way then figure out the individual turns while you are en route rather than dinking around trying to find exactly where you are going before even turning a tire.
Oh, did I say practice?
When your posted map calls that are toned out for other units.
Practice.
Learn your coverage area.
Practice.
Don't try to find the street right away, find the closest major intersection and tell your partner to head that way then figure out the individual turns while you are en route rather than dinking around trying to find exactly where you are going before even turning a tire.
Oh, did I say practice?
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Learn what side of the street are even and odd numbers. Around here the phrase is "people from the southeast are odd." So addresses that end in odd numbers will be on the south side of an east-west road and on the east side of a north-south road.
Another thing that helps in rural areas is that the house numbers indicate how far from the intersection the house is.
Also, learn the hundred blocks of major intersections and which way you have to travel for the numbers to increase.
Sent from my Android Tablet using Tapatalk
Another thing that helps in rural areas is that the house numbers indicate how far from the intersection the house is.
Also, learn the hundred blocks of major intersections and which way you have to travel for the numbers to increase.
Sent from my Android Tablet using Tapatalk
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So we have GPS in all our units but I have noticed it has a tendency to either take us through random residential neighborhoods or constantly try to get us on the main thoroughfares rather than using side streets that have less traffic. Which can really mess with our response times. It may be different for IFT but my system as standards we have to meet to keep our contract and sometimes if you follow the GPS turn for turn it ends up taking you longer to get there. We mostly use it for when we get close to where we are going, but that's just us. Then again when compared to most cities in CA my city is much smaller.
GPS is a great tool, but like everything electronic it can fail and you may have to resort to mapping.
edit: What FF said is definitely a key thing. Know what "barrier" divides streets from East/West and North/South.
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MSDeltaFlt
RRT/NRP
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Generally speaking most if not all cities and towns follow a pattern. Streets will usually go one way, avenues another. Streets with with similar type names (i.e. states' names) might be clumped together. Actual house numbers will start lowest on the same side of the street: house 100 will usually start on left if that's the case for that particular city. And so on and so forth. Talk with local fire dept folks LEO's. They're supposed to know their area by memory. They should be able to show you your area's tricks to help know the map.
AZEMTJUNKIE
Forum Ride Along
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How about a personal Gps unit if they will allow you to put one in your ride while your on shift.
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That's when GPS is most useful, if you work in a large metro area and have to know the whole city (SSM type deploymnet), it's not realistic that you will know every street. Figure out where the address is, get close with your knowledge of the more main roads, and then follow the GPS the rest of the way.
It's also important to figure out early on where hospitals are in relation to these pain roads. Generally hospitals are in more built up places, so ideally you'll be able to get to the hospital without needing a GPS or map.
WuLabsWuTecH
Forum Deputy Chief
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In the city, you are not going to know every street, it's just not possible. GPS is very helpful here, but ideally you will learn how to use a map book such that you can get the address in about 60 seconds or less. If your station has a run log, have your partner pull it up and call out street addresses and time you. Do it as you would on a run. If you know you want to leave the station going left, call out, got left out of station. Head up toward high street and make a right, and I'll get you more directions in the meantime.
In a rural area, we just have to know general cross streets. 200 square miles to cover: we have guys that have been there 30 years and don't know a lot of the streets still. Fortunately a large area means long response times and having a half hour to figure out where something is is more than enough time. As long as you know the major points of interest and know the main routes to get there, focusing down on the street once you get into the actual village/town will be simple since you'll have 15-45 minutes to figure it out.
In the city, we are required to have all the streets in in our primary run district memorized. When I came off of probational, they would call out a house number and street, and I had to recite back: Left out of station, down to High street. Left on high, Left on Main. House will be on the right hand side after the curve between 2nd and 3rd.
If I missed it by a block or 2 it was ok, but the idea is that in our primary run district (1 square mile) we'd like to keep our response times to under 2 minutes during the day so a map book/GPS just eats up more time.
In a rural area, we just have to know general cross streets. 200 square miles to cover: we have guys that have been there 30 years and don't know a lot of the streets still. Fortunately a large area means long response times and having a half hour to figure out where something is is more than enough time. As long as you know the major points of interest and know the main routes to get there, focusing down on the street once you get into the actual village/town will be simple since you'll have 15-45 minutes to figure it out.
In the city, we are required to have all the streets in in our primary run district memorized. When I came off of probational, they would call out a house number and street, and I had to recite back: Left out of station, down to High street. Left on high, Left on Main. House will be on the right hand side after the curve between 2nd and 3rd.
If I missed it by a block or 2 it was ok, but the idea is that in our primary run district (1 square mile) we'd like to keep our response times to under 2 minutes during the day so a map book/GPS just eats up more time.
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I would like to discourage the over reliance on GPS simply because it can and does fail. Understanding how your addressing system works, and being able to read a map will always work.
Use them if you can, but you should be able to navigate without them.
Use them if you can, but you should be able to navigate without them.
Mountain Res-Q
Forum Deputy Chief
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From someone that is heavily invested in GPS Technology as a method of not just getting from point A to B, but for saving lives and keeping rescuers alive and on task, YUUUPPPPP!!!!
I have more than a few stories of rescues and body recoveries that came about from over reliance on GPS. And I don't mean just wilderness/backpacking/hand-held GPS, I mean TOM TOM telling you to TURN TURN down a ROAD ROAD that is now plowed in the winter and is covered in SNOW SNOW and leads you to your DEATH DEATH!
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Here are a couple of techniques that really helped me when I move to an area.
1) On your own time, drive around, and intentionally get lost. Find your way back to major streets.
2) On company time, take different routes when returning back to the station.
3) During down time, take a map and have a partner randomly spew out an address. Try to find it on the map, or at least where it should be.
1) On your own time, drive around, and intentionally get lost. Find your way back to major streets.
2) On company time, take different routes when returning back to the station.
3) During down time, take a map and have a partner randomly spew out an address. Try to find it on the map, or at least where it should be.
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Like everyone else has said. Relying on a GPS unit is bad practice. It doesn't take into account construction, road closures, new streets.
Something as simple as putting E instead of W for a prefix on a street can put you on the complete wrong end of town.
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Go run or cycle the area! Assuming its safe to do so that is... It's healthy and allows you to take in more of the area details 
I've done this to a few of my districts and it's worked pretty well
I've done this to a few of my districts and it's worked pretty well
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When I saw you typing a response to this post, I figured I had angered the GPS gods and was going to hear about it.
I would like to add that I've never used a GPS to get me anywhere. My response area is over 500 sq. miles, and my work area covers an area of about 3500 sq. miles over 4 counties. When I worked for a large satellite TV company, my work area was 9 counties covering almost 10000 sq. miles.
I have driven so many back roads (I have an aversion to taking the same road twice in the same day), that my co-workers now come to me and ask me for directions to a customer's house...despite the fact that they have GPS in their trucks. Countless times their GPS units will put them miles from their destination because the system does not understand how the addressing system works. The only way to get better at it is to do it.
Mountain Res-Q
Forum Deputy Chief
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When I saw you typing a response to this post, I figured I had angered the GPS gods and was going to hear about it.
I would like to add that I've never used a GPS to get me anywhere. My response area is over 500 sq. miles, and my work area covers an area of about 3500 sq. miles over 4 counties. When I worked for a large satellite TV company, my work area was 9 counties covering almost 10000 sq. miles.
I have driven so many back roads (I have an aversion to taking the same road twice in the same day), that my co-workers now come to me and ask me for directions to a customer's house...despite the fact that they have GPS in their trucks. Countless times their GPS units will put them miles from their destination because the system does not understand how the addressing system works. The only way to get better at it is to do it.
From someone who is looking to get his degree in this Geospatial Technology and is "this close" to being named the Division Chief for our newly formed Incident Management and Mapping Team:
GPS is GREAT... GPS KILLS... learn to navigate by every other method first... I have never used a vehicle GPS and my GPS in my blitz pack for SAR is beneath my compass and maps. Team protocol: Map and Compass Mandatory; GPS comes later.
Oh, and it is "GIS God", FFEMT... or "SAR CZAR... or "His Holiness"...
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Oh, and it is "GIS God", FFEMT... or "SAR CZAR... or "His Holiness"...
http://emtlife.com/showpost.php?p=373562&postcount=22589
h34r:
Mountain Res-Q
Forum Deputy Chief
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Does that mean you acknowledge my existance?
WuLabsWuTecH
Forum Deputy Chief
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Oooh! A very good idea to know how the addressing system works! I had just taken this for granted since it's be ingrained into me since I started working here.
Most cities will have a "ground zero" Everything form that point out is higher numbers. For example, High street and Main Street is 0. For every mile north, you add 1000 numbers. For every mile east you add 1000 numbers, etc. So if you are asked to respond to 3000 E School Street, you know that it's on school street, 3 miles east of high street. If you are dispatched to 3250 N high street, you know that it's on high street 3 and a quarter miles north of main. Since it is an even number, in my area I also know that it's on the E side of high street.
Similarly, some counties will have a point as a zero point. Often these are in the corner of the county so numbers only go up and they don't have to deal with E, W, N, S. If you are not in the city or on the edge of a city, it becomes important to recognize if a dispatch is in the city or a township that follows the county system. For example, in the suburb I work in, if we get something like 338 W Main street, I know that it is a 3rd of a mile West of high street. But if we get 6540 Lake Shore Drive, I know that it's just outside of the city limits, 6.5 miles from the county line.
Figure out how things are sequenced in your area. If you are lucky, there is some method to the madness. If you are not lucky, there is no real standardization. If you are unlucky, as I am in one of the areas of one of the departments I am on, people use whatever the hell number they please and driving down a state route, you first come to 5640 and then hit 4522, and then hit 5650. WTF! :wacko:
Most cities will have a "ground zero" Everything form that point out is higher numbers. For example, High street and Main Street is 0. For every mile north, you add 1000 numbers. For every mile east you add 1000 numbers, etc. So if you are asked to respond to 3000 E School Street, you know that it's on school street, 3 miles east of high street. If you are dispatched to 3250 N high street, you know that it's on high street 3 and a quarter miles north of main. Since it is an even number, in my area I also know that it's on the E side of high street.
Similarly, some counties will have a point as a zero point. Often these are in the corner of the county so numbers only go up and they don't have to deal with E, W, N, S. If you are not in the city or on the edge of a city, it becomes important to recognize if a dispatch is in the city or a township that follows the county system. For example, in the suburb I work in, if we get something like 338 W Main street, I know that it is a 3rd of a mile West of high street. But if we get 6540 Lake Shore Drive, I know that it's just outside of the city limits, 6.5 miles from the county line.
Figure out how things are sequenced in your area. If you are lucky, there is some method to the madness. If you are not lucky, there is no real standardization. If you are unlucky, as I am in one of the areas of one of the departments I am on, people use whatever the hell number they please and driving down a state route, you first come to 5640 and then hit 4522, and then hit 5650. WTF! :wacko: