Am I the only one who thinks Mercator projection maps are fine for most people?

Last week I was in a forum where everyone was trashing Mercator maps for distorting size. Three years ago I bought a wall map with Robinson projection and honestly it looks weird to me. I get that Greenland isn't as big as Africa but for daily use Mercator shows directions straight and lines clean. My dad used one for 40 years navigating the Great Lakes without a single issue. Does the average person really need an equal area map just to hang in their living room?

2 comments

2 Comments

jana_lewis162d ago

The average person really doesn't need an equal area map just to hang in their living room" but they also don't need a map that lies about how big things are. You say your dad used Mercator on the Great Lakes for 40 years but that's a small area where the distortion is barely noticeable. Try using Mercator to compare the size of South America to Alaska and you'll think the US is way bigger than it actually is. Maps teach people wrong ideas about the world and that's a real problem even for casual use.

hugo_moore2d ago

Take a look at Mercator's Greenland problem. It shows Greenland the same size as Africa when Africa is actually 14 times bigger. That's not just a minor oops, that's a straight up lie on your wall. People walk away thinking Canada is way bigger than Brazil too, which just isn't true. For something you look at every day, I'd rather have a map that gets the basics right.