What street is this? Can I turn here? If the signs below look difficult to read, keep in mind I took these photos while out on a walk. Imagine trying to read the signs while both driving and attempting to find your way at the same time. At least these streets had signs, which is often not the case.

There seems to be a lack of standardization among roadsigns, and definitely a lack of maintenance.

By the way, we have Google Maps on our Mexican cell phone, but there are several problems with it. For one, if it tells you to turn on a certain road, it’s unlikely that you will see a corresponding road sign confirming that you found the correct road. Second, if there is a road sign, it is often as pictured in the photos above. Third, I would say about 75% of the time, the app identifies roads differently than posted signs do. An example for those familiar with Pleasanton would be if the app said to exit at Santa Rita but the only sign indicated Tassajara. Locals know that this is the same road (on different sides of the freeway), but if you aren’t already familiar with the area, how would you know? Fourth, and I don’t recall if it does the same thing in the US, it often says something like “Follow the route toward Main Street.” Since I’m in an unfamiliar area, how would I know where Main Street is? Finally, the Google maps app frequently “goes crazy”. You’re heading along fine, and out of the blue it will tell you to exit, make a bunch of turns, make a U-turn, etc., until it eventually brings you back to where you just were. I’ve learned that you have to strategically ignore (i.e., make an educated guess) certain instructions from the navigation. Find the route that looks correct, and then if any of the subsequent instructions seem to deviate, ignore them. If you’re lucky, this will keep you on the correct route; otherwise, at least you still have the navigation and eventually it will take you back to a workable route. When we were in Mexico City, we took a trip one day that was just nine miles away but took us 90 minutes to get there. It was partly due to bumper to bumper traffic all the way, but the navigation played a role as well. Thankfully, people are friendly and are always happy to help get you back on the right path.