Customer Reviews

Michelin North America Road Atlas 2003

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This new spiral bound road atlas gives extensive coverage of North America. This includes city and local maps, city to city distances and driving times (in miles and kilometres). Also given are road condition, update telephone numbers and local driving requirements as well as monthly climate conditions for all major north American cities. The US section includes large scale maps for the northeast corridor. All place names are clearly indexed and colour coded.

In my opinion the most significant new feature is the way that this atlas is organized, each country is divided into a grid. Turn the page and view the region to the east or west in a logical manner. Other quick location reference guides are printed on each map and there is a half inch overlap in map data. This is different than most other North American road atlases where generally each state is a separate map arranged alphabetically.

For a long road trip I would choose this atlas.

As a travelling college student, I count on a good atlas to lead me to my destinations. Long a user of the Rand McNally, I decided to try out this Micehlin atlas. This is by far the absolute best atlas every made. The person who thought up the idea of setting it up so you turn the pages as you drive is a total genius and should be given an award. I live around the area of the Michelin Headquarters, and if I ever meet anyone that works in their atlas/map department I'll thank them repeatedly. All of these reviews have been right on, and this atlas definitely deserves 5 stars, if not many more. However the first review was quite disappointing. The references to the maps did not even apply, as this is for an atlas...which is totally different from a regular map. Any person that does not find this atlas incredibly helpful is either illiterate or just thick. And apparently he/she didn't read the directions: "Please be sure to focus your comments on the book's content." Kudos to the project manager and all the brains that thought this beauty up...can't wait 'til the next one comes out!!

Great Atlas! I travel alot for work and I love this. I don't understand the review that said these are "Mapquest maps?" The maps are detailed enough to be helpful, yet uncluttered so you can read them riding down the road at 70 mph. This atlas is more compact than the bulky Rand McNally that I am used to. It tucks away neatly in the seatback pocket! I love the format of this atlas as well. You no longer need to hunt for a different map when you cross the state line. If it's not on the adjacent page, it tells you what page number to turn to. The same goes for the city blow-ups. I would recommend this map to anyone! Great concept and great execution Michelin!

This is the first road atlas of North America to have its maps oriented geographically rather than in the traditional state-by-state format. It is easy to use, intuitive, and designed for people who use their atlas on the road. Future versions of this atlas could improve by preserving detail on both sides of international borders.

While road atlases of Europe have been arranged in geographical format for decades, North American road atlases have traditionally mapped each state or province individually over one or two pages, each at a different map scale, and in alphabetical order (at least for the USA). The Michelin approach, to map the whole country at the same scale, and arrange the maps on a geographic grid, where the maps begin at one coast. As the reader turns pages the maps proceed, west-to-east, coast-to-coast. As many other reviewers have already commented, this intuitive format (turn a single page as you drive off the edge of the map) is much easier to use. This atlas is also well designed with pleasant colors and easy to read symbols, a Michelin hallmark.

My only criticism of this atlas would be that maps which show land on both sides of an international borders should not "dim" the parts of the map which are not in the country of interest. For example many roads in Canada are not plotted and the landscape is "dimmed" on the panels which detail northern Maine, or Washington state. A Michelin road atlas of Europe from the 1980's did not dim out the road network of East Germany where it occupied the same page as West Germany, despite that traveling on most of the mapped roads was forbidden for the western Europeans who were most likely to have the book! With cross-border travel increasingly popular in North America lately, hiding detail on maps which show both sides of a border is unnecessary and creates extra work for the reader.

Given the amount of high-quality geospatial data available today, I hope that Michelin will someday publish similar atlases, perhaps with regional scope, at even higher resolution, perhaps similar to the wonderful 1:200,000 scale atlases they publish for France and other parts of Europe.

Picture this... Two hours into a summer vacation road-trip, four kids are screaming "how much longer", "I have to go potty", "he hit me", "my shoe is back there on the road daddy...", the dog has decided that it now gets car sick, my beautiful, darling love of my life is snoring away in the passenger seat and we are lost. So, being the resourceful man I am, I whip out my trusty Atlas (was not a Michelin atlas). After 10 minutes of searching, I found the page I was supposed to be on, another 10 minutes to find where exactly I was on that page which was immediately lost when I had to turn around to deliver the age old "if I have to pull this car over... " to my son who has recently discovered how to totally annoy his big sister... another 10 minutes to find previously mentioned spot, at which point in time I discover the exit I should have taken was about 30 miles back. With out going into much more detail, that atlas was a great starter for our campfire that night...
I was so excited to find Michelin's atlas, even used it on another family roadtrip last weekend and am happy to say despite the hairpulling, name calling, etc... I was able to easily find where I was and where I wanted to go. If I lost my spot, it was easy to find again. Thank you Michelin!!

I used the new Michelin Atlas to drive through the Northeast to a wedding last week and thought it was great. I just logged on to buy a copy for my father-in-law's birthday, because he always complains about the maps in the atlas he has in his car being wrong. The maps were very accurate in my experience, and I have never seen an atlas this size with a spiral cover - it was very easy to use, even when I was driving (probably not a good idea!). I would definitely recommend this atlas.

My wife and I bought this atlas before taking off on a long road trip to visit our grandchildren. I may not know much about maps, measurements and all that mumbo jumbo, but this is the best darn atlas I have ever used (and I have used lots of 'em). It was easy to read while driving, even with my old eyes, I could just set it on my lap and follow it while driving. My Norma even navigated for a spell, she went on and on about how easy it was to read and follow. No more unfolding & refolding the atlas to hold the page that I never manage to find when I really need it. I loved Michelin's Atlas so much, I have already bought some to give to my children for christmas.

This is a great idea for an atlas. I don't know why this has not been done before. I found it so easy to use. The smaller size is great for the car. I used it on a trip this weekend and what a difference this size made. I like the fact that the index is alphabetical by all cities and not by each state. The scale did not change so I did not have to re-orient myself when I crossed over from Alabama to Florida. THANKS MICHELIN!

Good maps, easy to follow routes from state to state because of the way the book is laid out. This is the perfect USA Atlas to keep in the car on those long trips.

Very Disappointing! I was not expecting a Michelin Road Atlas to be using Mapquest maps! I thought your 1:500,000 maps of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England areas were outstanding. I consider this atlas to be only mediorce at best. I hope you reconsider and use your own expert cartography in your next edition.