People often call or come to the library for directions. We have quite a few road atlases, both in reference and in circulation. Keep in mind, though, that the atlases in circulation tend to be older editions. Roads, especially in Boston or other areas that have undergone major construction projects, may have changed over the past few years. If you need point-to-point directions and do not have GPS, you can take a look at some online resources.

*Do you remember AAA TripTiks? Now, you can make your own. (You may need a AAA membership to use this service.) AAA allows you to choose multiple destinations on your journey and modify the route if you want to avoid certain roads. You can set the map to show construction, restaurants, gas stations, and other points of interest. In the settings section, you can change from English to French, miles to kilometers, and avoid tolls and ferries.

*MapQuest is another option. (I have even used MapQuest as a verb, a la Google.) MapQuest can provide an aerial view of your route. You can choose either the shortest time or shortest distance and avoid highways, tolls, and seasonally closed roads. You can also reverse your route.

*Like AAA, Yahoo Maps allows you to input multiple locations. It will provide a hybrid map, which gives you an aerial view of your trip, as well as a reverse route or round trip. Yahoo also offers live traffic information, which can be helpful if you are traveling during rush hour.

*Google Maps offers traffic information, a hybrid view, reverse directions, and multiple destinations. A new feature allows you to create and save your own maps with points of interest,
captions, photos, lines, and shapes, that you can publish on the web and share with friends and family.

How accurate are these maps? I have had success and failure with all of them. Personally, I have had the most trouble with MapQuest, so I tend to use the others more often. You can get to Google and Yahoo maps more quickly than AAA TripTiks; I generally use these two for shorter drives. I have used the TripTiks for longer road trips. It is not a bad idea to look at a couple of sites if you have the time. They sometimes take you different routes to the same place, so you can compare and make sure that small yet important details are not omitted. Despite some bad moments, these online driving directions are a great resource.