The Collins Road Atlas

Carawaystick

two unrelated points, I got a copy of the Collins road atlas 2009 in an apple green service station just off the M1 at Courtlough(J5) today - face value was a tenner or £6.99 but I got it and a bottle of holt windscreen wash for EUR7

Looking at it, there's a fair few roads not on it, the 5 roads has only 4 roads approaching it...


The other thing I noticed was signs for L roads in Douglas(especialy around Frankfield) in Cork, and in Balbrigan, Co. Dublin. Some of these were into cul de sacs in housing estates and streets with street name signs.

There are plenty of roads around the north co. Dublin area with no L signs

Amtmann

Overall though Carawaystick, what do you think of the atlas? I've never seen a better one.

OS maps - cluttered and poor colour scheme
AA - woeful
Michelin - good, but not as good as Collins

Have a look at Inishowen above in Donegal on the Collins atlas. It shows the ferry service. That's the first time I've seen that listed; it's certainly not on the OS map I have. Those are the kind of touches that set it apart for me. That, and the colour scheme.

spacetweek

Furet wrote: »

Overall though Carawaystick, what do you think of the atlas? I've never seen a better one.

OS maps - cluttered and poor colour scheme
AA - woeful
Michelin - good, but not as good as Collins

Have a look at Inishowen above in Donegal on the Collins atlas. It shows the ferry service. That's the first time I've seen that listed; it's certainly not on the OS map I have. Those are the kind of touches that set it apart for me. That, and the colour scheme.

My favorite is Michelin.
I'm always amazed by the OS maps - despite actually being made in Ireland, they're always out of date, with have no recent road openings.

Carawaystick

The fact it leaves out roads is the number 1 fail against it. It's a smaller scale than the OS atlas too. I don't find he Collin's atlas much clearer than the OS one really.
The OS atlas is out of date, even the new one in shops is out of date.
But the one I have shows the ferry across Lough Foyle from Greencastle to Co. Derry.

I know the L road signs started st junctions along the R752 going from Arklow to Laragh. This would be a main tourist route, I supose having L signs at a junction at least lets you know what turn to take instead of the second left past pub across from the timber house"

Similar thing in Westmeath, all boreens signed off the R routes there. the signs are small so I don't think it adds to clutter and if they were rolled out completely they would at least address the issue of junctions in the middle of nowhere with all roads leading to nowhere in particular.
It just seems pointless to put them up on a street with a streetname sign (until everywhere else is done.)

Amtmann

Out of curiosity, how up to date is the most recent Michelin edition? I can't find any from 2009 online. I have their 2008 Benelux/Germany/Czech Republic road atlas, and it is excellent. I just prefer the Collins colour scheme.

Carawaystick

well there's this one anyhoo.
http://www.michelin.co.uk/travel/image/nat-map2.jpg
http://www.michelin.co.uk/travel/image/nat-map6.jpg


L roads
Yeah as the network is rolled out I can see gps maps using them. but I doubt you can buy a map with the network of even a single county with all the roads numbered.

I could see it as being useful for places that have no R road going to them, Cloghane in Dingle say, or Maree in Co. Galway or Glenmalure or Donard in Wicklow to have the route number on the direction sign.

Amtmann

I've just been in touch with Collins. Their 2010 touring edition atlas will be released early in the new year (some copies have already been published apparently) and will include new parts of the M6 and M9, all redesignated sections, as well as the Waterford Bypass, and schemes under construction. Looking forward to picking up a copy when it's released!

EDIT: Thread split - see here for L-road discussion.

JupiterKid

Collins are pretty good at keeping up to date. I used to swear by the Michelin road maps but in the past few years they've badly fallen behind in keeping up to date with all the new motorways.