If you’ve used the free, official highway map of Tennessee, you have Bob Boutiette to thank. From his tenth-floor office at the Tennessee Department of Transportation in Nashville, Boutiette helps edit and update the state map issued each year. And it starts with Post-It notes.
“It just so happens that...over on my desk, I have a 2015 state map with sticky notes on it," Boutiette says. "Because that’s the best way to really keep track of [changes and errors].”
1.5 million official Tennessee highway maps were published this year. That sounds like a lot, but it’s down more than 300,000 since 2010. Meanwhile, surveys show people increasingly rely on mobile devices to plan their trips. Boutiette acknowledges the tide is turning away from traditional paper maps.
“I don’t want to give away my age, but I’m about fifty, so I’ve got another ten, fifteen years to go. And it’s possible that [printed maps] might go away in that time," he says.
Tennessee’s first road maps weren’t published by the state. In the days before governments managed road projects, private groups raised the money to build and maintain highways. They also published the earliest road maps.
“The primary reason for maps, throughout, really, Tennessee history, was to promote tourism, business and industries to come to the state," says Zach Keith, an archivist with the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
After World War II, average Americans began to hit the road in large numbers. In response, publishers turned out millions of maps, usually given away at gas stations.
“Large oil companies, such as Gulf, Standard Oil, Esso, would distribute these maps," Keith explains. "They created them really in an effort to get people to travel and use up the commodity that they were selling, which was gas and oil.”
The demand for those once-ubiquitous gas station maps waned long before GPS and smartphones became popular. The last oil company maps went away in 2010, leaving state governments and a few companies as the only outlets making original paper maps today. But map advocates say they can still be an important aid to travelers.
“I think with a paper map, one thing, you can look at it, you can turn it. To some degree, you can orient yourself better than you can with a GPS," says Road Map Collectors Association president Gary Spaid.
The ideal approach, he says, isn't thinking of navigation as a choice between paper or digital. It's a mix of paper and digital, so drivers get the benefits of both.
“And if you’re a history buff, or, well, for a lot of reasons, you may want to find those old routes, instead of running down the freeway," Spaid says. "There are a lot more interesting sites along the old routes.”
Back in his TDOT office, mapmaker Bob Boutiette says there is still a demand every January. When the official Tennessee highway map was released this year, Boutiette says his office was flooded with requests. Some of the people who ask for state maps use them for display or reference. Some collect them. And some still ask for one to stick in the glovebox. For the time being, at least, it appears the paper map isn’t ready to fold.
CORRECTION: The initial airing of this story placed Bob Boutiette's office on the seventh floor of the Polk Building in Nashville. The office is actually on the tenth floor. The text version you've just read has been updated, as was the narration in the story's second airing.