Customer Reviews

AAA Road Atlas 2010 (AAA North American Road Atlas)

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

 

 

I pre-ordered this atlas and that was a mistake. The quality has dropped considerably from previous editions. Cities are missing such as Clio, Flushing and Montrose, Michigan. It appears AAA has conceded trip-planning to the Internet and has put little effort into the 2010 atlas. Check out other publishers' atlases at a bookstore before making a purchase. Simply put, not recommended.

The first two reviewers were critical of this atlas for omitting some detail, but that misses the point. While previous AAA atlases (as is typical for the genre) used reduced-scale versions of their folded sheet maps (which are still in use), the maps in this atlas are all-new and apparently created just for it. The smallest communities and other details have indeed been dropped, but that allows what is left to be more readable. I invariably need a magnifier to read other similar atlases, but for this one I only need the magnifier occasionally.

In addition, the number of city & national park inset maps has been increased by around 50, and many of the holdovers have either grown in scale or in areal coverage. Particularly gaining in this respect are Canada, whose city insets in the older editions were ridiculously small in size and number, Puerto Rico, which was also too small in prior years, and the Virgin Islands, which had never been included at all. There are a few more Mexico insets as well, making this the closest thing yet to a true "North American" road atlas.

And the one big advantage that the AAA atlas always had over its competitors, the fact that the cities are indexed on the same pages as the state and provincial maps and not in the back of the book, has not been changed.

Of course, there are a few warts, which is why I withheld the fifth star. Some of the insets with increased areal coverage are in a reduced scale, rendering them less readable than their predecessors. Certain others, unlike the state maps, are simply too cluttered; "Denver Mountain Area" on the Colorado map is a typical example. In order to make room for those new Canadian city insets, the maps of the provinces have been shrunken somewhat and some now overlap the gutter. And the previously-excellent Mileage Table, now on page 2, has lost a lot of its cities, again in the name of increased readability; I never had any problem reading the older version, however, and I hope that AAA is smart enough to put all those cities back.

And note that is is basically a maps product only; the additional info that other road atlases have is lacking here. I wish AAA would take a page from Rand McNally's book and add a list of toll-free numbers for state tourism offices and hotel chains.

Remember that any "first edition" of an all-new map publication generally has some problems that will hopefully be worked out in time. Also remember that by nature, any road atlas is a bit of a compromise over individual maps that can be larger and more detailed. This is, warts and all, probably the best full-size atlas currently available, and if it's still not good enough, join AAA (if you're not already a member) and get the larger sheet maps.

Compared to my 1990's edition, I find several deficiencies with the 2010 atlas. As the previous reviewer noted, some not-so small cities were dropped-- Olean, NY (populations over 15,000)for example. A number of local roads have been eliminated and city names have been reduced in size. Some of the state maps have shrunk and geographic information, such as mountain elevations, appears inconsistently or in the case of Mount Mitchell, the East's highest point, simply lacking. If you want an less cluttered map, this may work for you, but as a road map enthusiast, I prefer the detail and graphics of the older AAA atlas.

AAA has the best road atlas and the maps and books are FREE when you are a member. The also have in house and internet trip-tiks that are maps designed just for you. I would recomend this atlas and Amazon is always been a pleasure to deal with.

Over the years of many travels I've liked the AAA Atlas best of all Atlas. And Amazon sent it be return mail, great service