A Road Atlas by basic definition is a map or a set of maps that displays roads and transport links in a particular country or area. Having a US Road Atlas and knowing how to read it will not only aid you in planning your route, but it will also provide you other alternate routes in the event that your primary route is congested or blocked. The road atlas will also let you plan side trips or find cities and counties along the way. Another great advantage of being able to read a US road atlas is being able to determine mileage, enabling you to estimate the fuel costs for your trip.
The first thing you have to do is of course determine your destination, so that you can choose an atlas that contains the information you need.
After choosing the appropriate road atlas, follow these instructions on how to find a city or a county:
- Check the Index - The Index is often located at the back of the atlas.
- Look for the State, City or County - Use the index to find the state for the city or county of your destination.
- Get the Letter-Number Coordinate - After you have found the state of the city or county that you want to go to, get the letter-number coordinate of that particular location.
- Use the Map of the State - Turn the page to the map of the state in which your destination city or country is situated.
- Use the Letter Coordinate - Locate the letters of your letter-number coordinate on the left side of the state map. Mark the letter coordinates using a pencil/pen or your fingers.
- Use the Number Coordinate - Locate the numbers of your letter-number coordinate on the bottom part of the state map. Mark the number coordinate as well.
- Intersect the Marked Coordinates - Using a ruler and a pen or just your fingers, draw a horizontal line from the letter coordinate mark and draw a vertical line from the number coordinate mark.
- Find your city or county - Check the lines you just drew. Their point of intersection falls on or near the city or country you chose from the index.
After finding your city on the state map, you can use the Mileage Chart.
- Determine your starting point - Using the state mileage chart or master mileage chart (Use State Mileage chart if your start point/city and destination city are in the same state and Master mileage chart if otherwise) find the city you are coming from in the left column.
- Determine your end point - Find the city that you want to go to on the top part of the same chart.
- Intersect start and end points - Draw horizontal and vertical lines using the start and end points as origins. The point of intersection between the two lines will give you a number, this is the distance between the two cities (unit = miles).
Make sure that the atlas you're using is updated. Anything older than two years should be replaced with a new one, because roads and routes change every so often.
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