Advice on remembering routes. Patterns from experienced drivers.

Not up to you standards but I have taken 8 1/2 x 11 lined paper scotch tape on dash L xyz R abc in order I was usually only 15 or so turn

 

If you want to get real technical and are a real math wiz and want to try and figure out the most optimal path yourself... you can look up the "Chinese Mailman Problem", Euler's paths, and Fleury's Algorithm as street maps are basically in mathematics just graphs (points connected by line segments).

But really what I've found out from experience is, don't try to memorize the whole route at once, try to memorize just sections of it (like 5 or so streets at a time), and then from there, how each of the major sections connect together. Following along and marking on a map as you do it helper shows you helps you see how sections can be carved out of a bigger map.

I'll be honest, I have enough experience that I can somewhat come up with a halfway decent attempt at a route on the fly from just looking at a map, mostly because I can start to see some of the same basic patterns that are similar to other routes I've done that I can then use to form sections that I can chain together, and I understand the basic rules of Fleury's Algorithm. However, it takes me a good couple of months (basically seeing the same route at least 5+ times, before I really figure out how to be truly optimal at it) In the end, I usually end up making changes and tweaks to what the "expert helper" showed me the first time, as I start to understand how things fit and flow together better, as while what they showed me was decent enough, it wasn't perfectly optimal. (and it sometimes pisses them off when I show them how the route can be done a completely different way )


Wait until you get to automation, the algorithm is completely different then as everything is one sided. Here's a clue: Run an outside perimeter for a section, then run the islands inside. If you can, run 2 or more inside islands at a time doing clover loops. Mark your map not by crossing out streets, but by crossing out islands as you complete them.