Yes, I actually know where I am going

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I read alot about the fact that aspies have a horrible time with following directions. This is one area that I definitely do not fit within the mold. If I have a map I can find my way quite easily. If I am just exploring, I can find my way because I develop a map in my head complete with changes in the angle of travel (thus I can always go in a loop if needed). I also notice the angle of the sun and a lot of other detail that helps guide me.

Anyone else like this?

I have very good sense of direction and I can read maps very well.

I'm very good at reading maps but not so good at intuitively finding my way around. (Probably not much worse than average, but definitely not what I'd describe as "good".)

I'm psycho good at directions. Mum's a cabbie, and for her first year on the job she was always calling me to find out where to go and how to get there... and she's been driving in this town for over 20 years... when she first started, I didn't even drive.

I think I've gotten lost ONCE, and even that doesn't count, I knew where I was, I just had to double back. Aspie panic attack during rush hour LA traffic... was not fun for Man.

I'm horrible with directions. With a map I may be ok, but it has to be a map of the area I'm looking for and not of the surrounding towns or I'd just get confused.
I'm only good with direction if I've walked the same route on a regular basis.

I'm good with maps, I love them. I will quite happily sit and read an atlas from cover to cover.

I love studying maps but unfortunately when I'm in a town I don't know I actually have to "step in" the map (MrBean, yeah, I know ) or else I will lose all sense of direction

I'm poor with map reading and directions, unless they're very simple. It helps if I draw my own maps but I still have trouble until I've done the journey so many times that I can do it without thinking. Having said that, I love maps and find them very useful, if I have the time to really get into them. I used to have a Victorian map of my home town, and studying that felt like I'd gone back in a time machine. The authors (Ordnance Survey) clearly thought it was very important to point out where all the "engines" were - presumably a vital item in the early Industrial Revolution.

Judging by the popularity of these new SatNav systems, I suspect it won't be long before map reading skills are a rare thing.

I'm good enough at map reading.
If I know an area, I have a map of it in my head, that's near photographic quality.

Only difficult: If I have no map and don't know the area and then have to ask somebody and have to follow his advice without those visual or drawn pictures. Then the information becomes a list of things (go left at the third traffic light, go to the yellow house, turn right...) and I find it difficult to remember this in detail.

Been very bad at this allways. I can go into an office in a corridor, and start off in the wrong direction when I get out again. In cities, I have to have some landmarks, or I get lost. Had a strange experience when I was about seven. We had just moved into a new house in a new place. Us kids ran around in the quite big house, exploring every room, and also the nearest area of our house for a whole day.
When I woke up the day after, everything seemed like it was mirrored, the house, surroundings..Took me a while to cope with that.

I like reading maps instead of books, too! I used to be in the habit of watching London-based television programmes with a street atlas and looking up street names as I watched the programme, to see if they existed and if so, where they were.

I know where I'm going, just not how I'm getting there, and I'm not really interested in your directions.

That's about my response most times.


M.

PilotPirx just about sums it up for me - one quick glance at a map and I know exactly where to go, and will remember it forever. But when someone is telling me where to go, I won't remember what they said - although if I were to read a transscript of exactly what they just said rather than hear it, I would have no problem remembering.

Maps also make fantastic recreational reading. Not quite the same as actually visiting the places, but fascinating nonetheless.