Map quest

Off on business tomorrow to California, getting in just at the end of evening rush hour, and then flying home Thursday night.

Due to unnamed factors, all our favored Pasadena hotels are booked, so I get to stay in lovely Arcadia (actually, on Huntington just off the 210). So I went to various online map sites to trace the suggested route from LAX to there. (I know how to get there, mind you — I was just curious as to the suggested route.)

Which has ended up turning into a mini-review in four areas: Interface, Route, Map, Directions.

• Map Quest: Took forever and a day to figure out how to tell it I wanted to go from LAX to the desired address. I ended up having to go to a map to map LAX, and for that had to click on the “Airports” link. Very frelling clumsy.

  On the other hand, it came up with a unique routing solution — 105 to 605 to 210 West to Huntington. That has something to say for it at rush hour, and it’s only 2 miles further than the suggestion the other two had.

  The print-out was the clearest, with large, easy to read directions, an overview map, and start-end maps. Nice.

  Ratings:

• Google Maps: Easy-peasey. Entered “LAX to [address]” in the search line, and it gave me a map and directions.

  The suggested route was 105-110-5-2-210 East. That takes me through downtown LA, backtracks me up to Glendale, and then onto rush hour east-bound 210. Bleah. Even if you wanted to take the 110 route, you’re probably still better off taking the 110 up into Pasadena then surface streets (well marked) to the 210.

  The print-out was least well formatted; the large map had Google’s unfortunate tendency to drop labelling on the map.

  Ratings:

• Expedia: Straightforward (if a few clicks in) to specify going from LAX to the address.

  Gave the same LA/Glendale route as Google.

  The print-out was nicely formatted, but the map was small and the route was not clear on a monochrome printer. No total mileage/time showed up on the printout.

  Ratings:

So, unfortunately, the tool with the best results was, in this case, the hardest to use. Which is a shame, because I almost gave up on using it, but now will feel like I should.

I like the look of Expedia’s maps, and the online appearance is best of the bunch, but the printouts are mediocre at best, and that’s what I carry with me into the car.

Google remains paradoxically the most powerful of the tools in terms of database and underlying info, but produces the most mediocre maps on a macro or micro scale for printing purposes.

To coin a phrase, of course, Your Mileage May Vary.