Directions on foot, by bus or by car
Ask for a route and understand what it is telling you, whichever way you are traveling.
Every map app has a Directions button, and behind it sit the same four choices: walking, driving, transit and cycling.
The map does not decide for you. It shows how long each way would take today, and you pick. Seeing "18 minutes to walk, 24 by bus" is often the whole answer.
Yours will look a little different from the practice screens here, and every one of them has these same four steps: say where to, pick how, read the turns, press start.
Key points
- Ask for a route and compare walking, bus, car and bicycle side by side
- Read the turns as a written list before you leave the house
- Tell the map to keep off highways, tolls or hills
- Plan on a computer and send the route to your phone
What to remember
- The written list of turns is worth a glance before you set off. It is often three lines and nothing more.
- A transit time is always door to door. That makes it comparable with the walking time, which is the point of showing both.
- Route options — avoiding highways, tolls or ferries — are a setting, not a fixed fact about the trip.
Try this
Ask your own map for walking directions to somewhere you already know well — the mailbox, the store. Seeing it get a familiar route right is what makes you trust it on an unfamiliar one.
Practice: Directions on foot, by bus or by car. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.