Dear Lis-mappers,
For those of you who do not subscribe to "Cycle Touring and
Campaigning", you may find the following extracts from a map
review of interest. Chris Juden has commented at length on "O/S
Touring maps of Cornwall and Devon: Tried and Tested" - his
views may seem somewhat Oliveresque to many lis-maps regulars!
With best wishes,
Nick
"For the first time since 1979, the Ordnance Survey has
produced a new map on a suitable scale for cycling (i.e.
between 1 to 100 and 150 thousand.....) .... "
"Could this be a first glimpse of that holy grail of British
cyclists, a national series to plug the yawning gap between 50k
Landranger and 250k Travelmaster? I'm afraid not.
I have never been more disappointed upon opening a map. What I
saw is little more than a blown-up Travelmaster. In one respect
it's even less: Travelmaster minus contours, leaving only
height colours at wide and irregular intervals.
You've heard the expression dumbing down? Here it is, writ
large, with a map designed to be read with half of one eye at
50mph.
Although there's more than six times as much space for it, I
struggled to find any extra information compared to
Travelmaster..............."
"... this 'Touring' product does not claim to be any sort of
cycling map. Rightly so. It's yet another for the filling
station counter. A sad thing that does not encourage personal
discovery of the county even by car-borne visitors, but
perpetuates honey-pot tourism by delivering hapless grockles to
industrially organised attractions. Between these attractions
is a blank: a place where cartographers of old inscribed "here
be dragons". ......
"For three decades CTC [Cyclists' Touring Club] has been asking
Ordnance Survey to fill the corresponding gap in their range.
If this is their answer I won't buy it and hope that neither
will others. For if these maps sell it's possible they'll make
more of the same and cyclists will never get a decent national
series at this scale. If you think that's important you'd all
better write and tell the Director General, Ordnance Survey,
Romsey Road, Southampton, SO16 4GU."
________________________________________________________
Nick Millea
Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
tel : 01865 277013
fax : 01865 277139
email : [log in to unmask]
homepage: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps/
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