Binghamton’s Sense of Direction Among Worst in New York

I was headed from Vestal Center to Endicott, and I knew exactly where I was going. Or so I thought. From the backseat, a small voice chirped up: “Mom, I can be your GPS if you want!”

My son was so serious about it too, ready to call out every turn like a seasoned co-pilot. I chuckled and told him he could go right ahead and call out directions if he wanted, but I grew up in the days before GPS. I was pretty good at finding my way around without one.

“Wait... You Didn’t Have GPS??”

He was baffled. Like full-on confused that I ever existed in a world where a robot voice didn’t guide us from point A to point B. “How did you even know where to go?” he asked, eyes wide like I’d just told him I rode a dinosaur to school.

I told him the truth and that's that we paid attention, we wrote directions down on paper, and sometimes, we pulled out a big map and traced our route by hand. And then we folded it up (kind of) and took it in the car with us. He looked at me like I was a time traveler.

I Don’t Miss Paper Maps, But...

GPS is a gift. Getting places has never been easier. But I also think relying on it so much has made a lot of us lose that natural sense of direction we used to flex more often. And it turns out, I’m not just making that up. There’s actually new research that proves it.

New York’s Love Affair with Google Maps

A by Empire Stakes looked into where people in the U.S. are searching for “Google Maps” the most. In New York alone, over the last year, there were more than four million Google Maps searches. That puts us at number 13 in the country for most map-related searches. Not exactly a gold star for navigational confidence.

Which NY Towns Are the Most Direction Challenged?

Digging even deeper, the study pinpointed specific towns in New York where folks are most likely to need some help getting around. Unsurprisingly, Albany, Rochester, and Buffalo made the top three. Big cities, lots of turns, we get it. But then came a surprise.

Coming in at #4… It’s Binghamton

That’s right. According to Empire Stakes, Binghamton landed as the fourth most directionally challenged place in New York. Even though we only had around 17,140 searches for Google Maps last year, when you look at it per capita, it’s a different story. Binghamton averaged 35.6 Google Maps searches per 100 people, which slid us right into that number four spot.

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So... Should We Be Concerned? Or Just Recalculating?

It’s kind of funny. But it also makes you wonder whether we've become so used to being guided everywhere that we’ve lost the ability to figure it out ourselves.  Next time you're driving through town and someone says, “I think we take a left here,” maybe go with it. Worst case, we recalculate. Best case, we remind ourselves we’ve still got it.

Even if we do have a little help from the backseat GPS.