And, if we've never been somewhere before, our attention is definitely NOT on the road! Maybe we're reading that hand-drawn map while we talk on the phone to the person we're trying to meet.
Us: "I'm almost there. Is it on the left or the right?"
Them: "It depends, are coming from the north or the south?"
Us: "Uh... I turned down 8th street."
Them: "'Down' isn't a direction."
Us: "I think I see your house... is it the brown one with a tree in front?"
With this kind of distraction, it's not a surprise that collisions occur! Maybe someone stops in front of you while you're looking for street numbers or maybe you stop suddenly and the guy behind you doesn't.
Avoid all of this easily by using Google Maps.
Go to http://maps.google.com.
Type in your address (we'll use one of Boyd's Winnipeg auto body locations.
Now find this little orange guy...
... and drag-and-drop him near your location
and then you'll see the road from the street view!
Then just "click" your way up the street to see the road. We've done that to advance to the address -- our location at 120 King Edward Street. If we had never driven this way before, we can see that we should stay to the right after curving around to the left on King Edward and to watch for the shop on the right.
By using Google street view, you'll have a chance to familiarize yourself with the area BEFORE you drive there, making you a safer driver for your family and for the other drivers around you.
