Mapping Curb Co. Territory Efficiently

There is nothing more frustrating than driving around to pick up Curb Co. stuff and getting lost. Some areas are clearly better than others to go to. With this in mind, I thought I'd mention something that may be of assistance in helping to efficiently organize the area you are planning to drive.

City (paper) maps and the old Rand McNally road atlases used to be a lot more useful than they are now. I prefer online maps. If you go to bing.com/maps, you should be plenty impressed with the capabilities of this free service.

The map itself will show city boundaries until you zoom in real closely. Then the boundaries disappear. It also shows golf courses, so you can get an idea where the gated communities are likely to be. It would be really cool if there was some way the map was color-coded to indicate gated communities- this could save some valuable driving time!

Another thing that is really cool is when you click on "Aerial" on the top right portion of their site. This will give you an aerial photo of the area. You can tell pretty easily where the commercial vs. residential areas are. You might find some hidden residential areas, for instance, near commercial areas that many don't know about and where you will likely have little competition while on your scrapping missions.



You can also see areas where the streets are wider apart and there is a good amount of distance between homes. These are likely higher end homes, farms, horse properties, etc. The ones that are very close together may be more modest homes, or they might be apartments/condos or even trailers.

In some areas you will see streets but no buildings. This will typically be new neighborhoods or outskirts areas just being plotted out where nobody lives as yet.

Play around with the zooming in and out (+ and - signs). This will give you multiple views of the same area and may provide valuable info.

When I find valuable data, I then put notes onto my iPhone. For instance, I might say "XYZ area of Zone 1 looks good. Haven't scrapped there as of 8/19/18."

This has really helped me when going out just in advance of brush pickups. What else does anyone want to share? Are there any websites that are even better than BING Maps? (FYI- Microsoft says that BING literally stands for "Because It's Not Google" and BING offers a rewards program whereby you get points for performing searches. You can use these points to buy movie tickets, Starbucks, etc. I like going to movies, so going free is even better.)

If your getting lost in the city I want some of that stuff your smoking, I scout rural and Indian reservations. GPS while travelling leave bread crumbs on the map to indicate you've previously covered this ground also adds unmarked roads with crumbs.

Official name for breadcrumbs is map overlay.

My GPS works with our cellular reception which is a big issue living rural where were often with out reception.

I don't use GPS. Also, GPS won't allow me to keep notes such as which areas are good, not good, gated communities, etc.

Originally Posted by recyclersteve

I don't use GPS. Also, GPS won't allow me to keep notes such as which areas are good, not good, gated communities, etc.

Rodger - got that.

My toys work anywhere in the world with out subscribing to a service provider, I'd like to see you use your cellular device in my neck of the woods, should you be lucky enough to receive a signal the roaming charges would eat up your profits.

Originally Posted by Proton

I'd like to see you use your cellular device in my neck of the woods, should you be lucky enough to receive a signal the roaming charges would eat up your profits.

I'm not talking about using roaming charges at all. I'm talking about putting notes onto my cell phone in advance of the driving. I can then open my notepad without any data or roaming charges whatsoever while out covering the territory. For me this is MUCH easier, even though I have to do some legwork before I leave the house. Once the initial legwork is done, I have notes that should need minimal updating for years.

Originally Posted by recyclersteve

I'm not talking about using roaming charges at all. I'm talking about putting notes onto my cell phone in advance of the driving. I can then open my notepad without any data or roaming charges whatsoever while out covering the territory. For me this is MUCH easier, even though I have to do some legwork before I leave the house. Once the initial legwork is done, I have notes that should need minimal updating for years.

With the GPS you can create routes with waypoints with names. A Goto command for any particular route brings up the nearest waypoint to your location.

Saving an address in note pad then entering that data into your mapping software is a joke, try a cheap GPS you'll be amazed with its features.

Originally Posted by Patriot76

I am as good with electronic navigation as I am with escrap. I can't remember street names or even highway numbers so I depend on landmarks. Heck I did not even trust a compass until I was retired. After getting lost in fog a couple of times I decided to start using a compass and found out they really do work.

Scrapping in the fog- now that is dedication! I can imagine seeing something shiny peeking out of the fog. As I get closer, I can imagine driving into a fog shrouded ditch just in front of the lovely looking pile of trash.

Originally Posted by recyclersteve

Scrapping in the fog- now that is dedication! I can imagine seeing something shiny peeking out of the fog. As I get closer, I can imagine driving into a fog shrouded ditch just in front of the lovely looking pile of trash.

scrapping in the fog is that exciting? Go figure. I deal with it everyday here on the sandbar. Rain an wind to. watch out fiddling with your phone, lots of places have some kind of law against it. Fine an points are no fun. I prefer my gps but hey....ymmv.

Guess some folks only go out in good weather.


Ah..Well. Whatever floats your goat.

Sirscrapalot - no quyorte muy keuyboartd i]s bein]g srtuyp[i]d

Originally Posted by recyclersteve

Scrapping in the fog- now that is dedication! I can imagine seeing something shiny peeking out of the fog. As I get closer, I can imagine driving into a fog shrouded ditch just in front of the lovely looking pile of trash.

I was out and grabbed a front load washer in a torrential down pour with plenty of lighting to go with it last night. Then there were two bikes around the corner. Double soaker, That was fun