Revealing Britain’s ‘lost’ generation
With the summer holidays well underway, lots of us are looking forward to loading up the car and hitting the road.
But a survey we carried out of just over 2000 people reveals that while the children in the back seat are screaming “are we nearly there yet?” millions of us will be driving round in circles.
On the road to nowhere
Our results show that two thirds of the population admit to regularly getting lost, a figure that soars to nearly eight out of ten in London, and that 38% of us Brits pretend to know where they are going even when we’ve got no idea!
However, while most people agree that maps are the best way of pinpointing a destination, lots of us are relying on out-of-date information.
A quarter of the population are using traditional paper maps which are at least a year old, whilst the four out every ten that are using a sat nav admit to having never updated the mapping it uses.
In the event of then getting lost, half of the people we questioned were happy to ask someone on the street for help, but since almost 60% admitted to having unintentionally given incorrect directions it is no wonder so many people end up spending their summer holidays in location limbo!
Interestingly, the research also reveals that the most reliable person to ask for directions is a man aged over 55 from the north east of England, whereas Scots are statistically twice as likely (8%) to deliberately give a driver wrong directions than the national average!
We make and average of 5,000 changes every day to our OS MasterMap database which helps to underpin everything from paper maps and satellite navigation to the emergency services and your bin collections.
Who's hoarding their maps?
So with the sheer number of changes happening to the geography of our country, it’s probably not surprising that people do get lost.
The simple answer to all this is that everyone should plans their summer holiday get-away using the most up-to-date mapping available, whether it’s the paper or digital variety. And maybe you should think twice about asking a Scot for directions… Just joking!
Who's hoarding their maps?
Oh, and the study also backs up traditional stereotypes, showing that women are less likely to consult a map, whereas men feel uncomfortable asking for directions.
So is Britain really a nation that doesn’t know where it’s going?
Themocracy
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by David Rogers, Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey, Salvatore Scellato. Salvatore Scellato said: unbelievable!! RT @OrdnanceSurvey: Scots twice as likely to give wrong directions on purpose than the national average: http://bit.ly/alRD6H [...]