New research from esure.com reveals that approximately 11 million motorists (35 %) cannot read a basic road map. Over a third of motorists struggled to read a four-figure grid reference and a staggering 83 % failed to identify the ‘motorway’ map symbol.
One in six (16%) UK drivers no longer keep a map in their car, with the majority (63 %) admitting to only keeping out of date maps in the car. When tested on their map reading skills, only 1 % would pass the Cub Scout Map Reader badge, which is aimed at 6 to 17 year olds.
8 % (2.5 million drivers) admit they could not live without their SAT-NAV systems and 63 % of those questioned (21 million motorists) admitted they would be well and truly lost without their satellite navigation system. Despite this up to 36 billion wasted miles (260 miles per motorist) are driven by lost motorists each year – with 50 % of motorists claiming that their SAT-NAV system drives them mad at least once a month.
When it comes to traditional cartography and the battle of the sexes, men claimed to be better than women at reading maps although results showed that both sexes had fairly equal skills, with 62 % of women being able to correctly decipher four-figure grid references compared to 68 %.
However, ladies scored higher when it came to correctly identifying map symbols.Oh yes. Well done to us. Another myth catachrestically dispelled.
Jackie Violet