Customer Reviews

Thomas Guide 2004 San Francisco & San Mateo Counties: Street Guide (San Francisco San Mateo Street Guide)

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Rand McNally used to publish a nifty little cross-street map book that sold for $6.00. It was ideal for cab drivers, pocket-size and durable; its maps were easily readable and cross-streets and addresses accurate. Its only down-side was that street names blended with other information. Putting them in bold would have made the little book all but perfect.

Then Rand McNally bought out Thomas Bros., which made a bigger, bulkier, more comprehensive book, but with inferior maps and a sturdy looking but fairly fragile spine. Its San Francisco/San Mateo edition listed at $30.00 (sometimes available at Amazon for under $20.00), five times as expensive as the smaller, superior book. Rand McNally stopped publishing the cheap, good book in favor of the more expensive one.

We purchase the Thomas Bros. for our drivers only because we have to. Its sole known competition, American Map Corporation, publishes a cheaper ($11.95) book with superb maps but a wretchedly inadequate cross street directory. They're also harder to find in numbers. Staples carries them on consignment. If American Map can beef up the cross street directory and its distribution it's got an almost guaranteed market of San Francisco cab drivers, who purchase hundreds, perhaps thousands, of map books each year. One can only hope.