Mapping in Texas

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Bcez19

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Hello,
I'm from Cali and just moved to Texas. In Socal we use the Thomas Guide to map. But for the life of me I cannot find a Thomas Guide for anything but Cali. What do y'all use to map out here? Thank you in advance.
 
Not from Texas, but shot in the dark....

Google?
 
NPO said:
Not from Texas, but shot in the dark....

Google?
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In Cali we were not allowed to use it and I’ve specifically ward them say map page blah blah blah
 
Bcez19 said:
In Cali we were not allowed to use it and I’ve specifically ward them say map page blah blah blah
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Where in California? I've worked in California and the only place that didn't use GPS was LACounty and that's because they were too cheap to pay for it.
 
You won't find one. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Guide :
Thomas Guide is the title of a series of paperback, spiral-bound atlases featuring detailed street maps of various large metropolitan areas in the United States, including Boise, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, Reno-Tahoe, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson, and Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Road Atlas titles are Arizona including Las Vegas, California Including portions of Nevada, and Pacific Northwest covering Washington, Oregon, Western Idaho, Southwestern British Columbia.

So it looks like they are primarily west coast area and DC metro (which was one of the causes of their financial troubles), of which Texas isn't in. They were purchased by Rand McNally in 2003, and the company shut down in 2009.

As for map pages, that is a dispatch map system; so the map grid they provide should correlate to the map in your truck, which may be either commercially provided or home grown. And then Garmin came out with GPS, and map books became even more obsolete.

A good map is great; knowing your area is important, but how soon after the map is printed is it outdated? Google Maps updates on the fly.....
 
DrParasite said:
You won't find one. Taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Guide :
Thomas Guide is the title of a series of paperback, spiral-bound atlases featuring detailed street maps of various large metropolitan areas in the United States, including Boise, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, Reno-Tahoe, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson, and Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Road Atlas titles are Arizona including Las Vegas, California Including portions of Nevada, and Pacific Northwest covering Washington, Oregon, Western Idaho, Southwestern British Columbia.

So it looks like they are primarily west coast area and DC metro (which was one of the causes of their financial troubles), of which Texas isn't in. They were purchased by Rand McNally in 2003, and the company shut down in 2009.

As for map pages, that is a dispatch map system; so the map grid they provide should correlate to the map in your truck, which may be either commercially provided or home grown. And then Garmin came out with GPS, and map books became even more obsolete.

A good map is great; knowing your area is important, but how soon after the map is printed is it outdated? Google Maps updates on the fly.....
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I’m not saying anything against google lol I have no issue with google. I’m all for it. I’m merely just trying to find out what they map with (which you answered) so I can try to be prepared. On the west coast we are not allowed to use google because it doesn’t take certain things into account (such as stop signs, most direct route, speed bumps, etc). I thought it might be the same here.
 
Google and GPS mapping systems have some inaccuracies in our county. A map book and competency reading one is required in our remote areas... sadly it’s a dying skill.

As a county we have issued our own map books as the private companies have phased out.
 
EMDispatch said:
Google and GPS mapping systems have some inaccuracies in our county. A map book and competency reading one is required in our remote areas... sadly it’s a dying skill.

As a county we have issued our own map books as the private companies have phased out.
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Thank you!
 
Shoot I worked for McCormick in LA County... they strongly discouraged Google Maps... and I still used it on most every call anyway 😂

I will say there were times when the paper map book (Thomas Guide) saved my 4th Point of Contact when Google went wonky on me, so yeah I am always in favor of maintaining proficiency with your paper maps (whether that's a commercial product like Thomas Guide, or something drawn up in house), but 9 times outa 10, Google Maps worked just fine.

I wouldnt do the turn by turns, I'd pull up the address, maybe let it suggest a route (say the call was on some hillside area where the streets looked more like a pile of spaghetti than a grid...), but keep that view and navigate as if were otherwise a papermap I could pin my location and address on automatically, never got in trouble for that lol

But yeah, sometimes tech gets buggy, so whenever you get to your new agency in Texas, make sure to figure out their preferred map book (who knows, their standard frontline might be a GPS already mounted in the rigs...), and learn that. Ideally if you can study the map and get to the point where you dont even have to open up Google at all is best, but of course theres timea your not working your first in, or its large and complex, whatever. So yeah just use whatever the agency provides for paper maps.

I cant imagine them not having one, but if not, pick up one at a local gas station or something.
 
Bcez19 said:
I’m not saying anything against google lol I have no issue with google. I’m all for it. I’m merely just trying to find out what they map with (which you answered) so I can try to be prepared. On the west coast we are not allowed to use google because it doesn’t take certain things into account (such as stop signs, most direct route, speed bumps, etc). I thought it might be the same here.
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This is not a rule for California, SoCal, or the west coast. If anything it was your company’s policy. For my ground job we are trained to use the Thomas Guides in case the GPS system goes down. We are able to and allowed to use our MDT/CAD for directions, cell phones, and/or dedicated GPS units.
 
Bcez19 said:
I’m not saying anything against google lol I have no issue with google. I’m all for it. I’m merely just trying to find out what they map with (which you answered) so I can try to be prepared. On the west coast we are not allowed to use google because it doesn’t take certain things into account (such as stop signs, most direct route, speed bumps, etc). I thought it might be the same here.
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If youre looking at google to find an address, then YOU wouldnt be able to take those into account either when looking at a map. Terrible excuse.
 
If you need a street guide to warn you about stop signs and speed bumps, you're doing it wrong.
 
I didn't even know maps were detailed enough to mark speed bumps or stop signs.
 
hometownmedic5 said:
I've never seen such a thing, but I've never "mapped" in southern California, so what do I know.
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Ok. Y’all. Obviously the maps do not have speed bumps. What my fro told me is we use the thomas guide because issuing google isn’t as reliable. Yes I took the short cut and used google. I’m only asking so I can try to get on a company in this area. Knowing how to use the thomas guide is pretty much what passed everyone through training. I was asking so if I had to learn a new mapping system I could. Don't be salty.
 
There are accurate, recent Thomas guides for every Texas metropolis. Look at Amazon or at gas stations or in the trucks, they’ll have them.
 
We use the mapping function of our MDTs. Or our phones w/ Active 911
 
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