Any easy way to memorize streets?

[AnthonyM83]

We have one EMT who uses it and I know a county deputy who uses it (not TomTom brand, though). They say it works great for them. Probably more important for the cop, so he always knows where he is if he ends up in a pursuit out of his area. Neither should count on it all the time, though. Technology goes down at times.

[mstovall]

I do the following; note where theme base neighborhoods are

note street/ave layouts for your city (may change with lay of the land)

know streets of high calls first (NH, bars, parks, etc.)

and directional lineation streets (N vs S and E vs W)

as stated in different posts above.

I also would like to add that most cities have a numbering system that is the same. In ours it is even numbers on east/north side and odd on west/south side for the most part. I also have learned which streets are on the big divisions of numerics 500, 1000, 1500 etc. Then learn if they are through all the way or where they are broken up. This allows me to know that if I get a call at 1800 (a major street) I am going to be on Griffith Ave for the west half of the city. Then I can look for the name of the street as we intercept of my partner finds it in the book.

This focus the streets you need to know to ones that you will navigate most. Learn the numerical division of your major streets. Is Main street on a 300 level division or an 1800 level. Is Cedar Ave 800 or 1000.

This is the only things I would add to what others had mentioned.

Michael

[paraloco]

Many cities are set up on a grid. Common sense would tell you that the 9800 block of Whatever Road is not going to be downtown. Like some of the others posted, learn major thoroughfares first. then memorize at what block number other arteries cross it. Some dispatchers will give you a cross street. If they are using CAD, they should give you 2 cross streets. If the city is divided in to response zones for the firemonkeys, get a zone map from them. So, if you get dispatched with Engine 4, you have an idea what part of the city the call is in, because you can locate their territory on the map. Another thing. I was working my part time job a few weeks ago with a rookie partner. We had a call in a part of the county that was unfamiliar to me. His cell phone/blackberry/whatever had turn by turn GPS directions. You could always try that.

[Capman]

Driving around seemed to help me get used to towns when I first started. It is also good to utilize your partner when navigating to an unknown area. He reads and calls out the directions, crossroads, and such. Don't forget it's team work, so work together. However, when it comes to the occasional difficult partner. Let him/her drive. LOL

[unknown]

Is there an easy way that you have found to learn a new area quickly so you don't have to rely on the map book or master board at the station?

I work in an envoronment where memorization is key to what I do-- of coarse I sit 12 hours a day behind a console answering phone and dispatching helicopters........ but what I do is pull out the most common places we get called to and I draw maps to them--- over and over like a little kid that is bored with a box of crayons! Really it sounds stupid but the repitition and the different routs you can take and memorize the streets surrounding the main drag...... look for keys of repitition as well. In our town we have sections of roads that go as follows.....

1: numerical- 1st street through 8th street, east and west

2: States

3: Presidents last names

4: Female Names

Learn what area keeps to which section of names for example If we get an ambulance call to Debra street we know we are going to the Morrison subdivision..... If the call is To Washington Ave I know I am going downtown.......ect.

[kkidder]

Much like everybody has already stated ; there's not really an "easy quick fix" to memorizing streets. Especially if you have a large coverage area, are constantly changing coverage areas or if you're from out of town. . . Myself for example, I work in Louisville, KY but I don't live anywhere close to there, been there for about 8-9 months now and I still get confused from time to time on where I'm going. In general I have a "general" idea of where I'm going well enough to get me to the area and between my partner and I we can narrow it down to within a 1 block radius. But as stated in the prior posts, drive around your post area, glance at maps periodically in your down time to places you're commonly dispatched to. In addition, it never hurts to have a GPS in your unit like most of our med units in Louisville do. . . in doing that, even if you're familiar with the area, you can see the street names as you pass them and you're not trying to fumble and recalculate using a map book running code 3 if you happen upon a traffic jam or other adverse condition.

[AnthonyM83]

I thought mine was kind of a quick fix. Get very familiar with your map, memorize all the main streets, memorize little streets one area at a time. Just takes time, like an entire day off for each step or so...but then you're golden for the most part...you do start forgetting if you don't refresh a bit here and here.

[nremtp]

I know my home city and the surrounding towns like the back of my hand. I can give you directions from any street in the town to any other street in the town or surrounding areas.

Why do I know this? Because when I was a kid out cycling with my friends we didn't have satellite navigation and we didn't have map books. You had no choice but to learn the streets! Nowadays people just type it into a computer and they don't learn the streets because they don't have to.

My employer moved me to another town after we merged with another station and my response times started dropping because I didn't know where I was going or the sat nav took too long to get me there.

So now, I completely ignore the satellite navigation and take a minute to find the address in the map book. After a couple of weeks you know roughly where you are going and it doesn't take long to learn how to read a map!

If you get used to using maps then you will find that even being moved to another town shouldn't affect your response times.

It does help to have someone who knows the area though. I was recently working in my home town with a crewmate from further afield who didn't even know where the hospital was. While he was still programming the sat nav, I was already halfway to the patient.

If you really want to learn a town, I would get a map book and start learning it. Drive around the town/city with the mapbook and learn the main streets/areas.

This is what London taxi drivers have to do ("the knowledge") and it works very well.

[EMT137]

It just takes time. But like what has already been said go for a walk or take a drive (great while on duty...kills time and the company pays for the fuel! ) One of the major things that helps me was my stint dispatching; believe it or not.

I work for a private company that runs several different divisions and I work in two of them, so I've had to learn two different cities/counties. In the one town everything is split up north/south by Broadway and east/west by the railroad tracks. Just take something basic like that and expand on it. The other city the main drags are numbered running north and south but they start numerically east to west.

Just whatever helps you out. Look for landmarks and associate to those. That also has helped me out alot. Being able to say that's right next to this or that church or it's by McDonald's etc is helpful. Hope this helps you out. Good luck!

Pat