I was making maps as an intern for the city government, and my biggest problem was that the Mercator made the city look much wider than it really was.

I'm not sure about the 90 degree angle thing, but i wanted to point out that navigation is only one reason someone might use a map, and then agree with you that using a projection centered near the local area is probably going to be best 9/10 times.

[–] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 points 27 minutes ago* (last edited 26 minutes ago)

I seem to have upset some mercator afficionados. As you say, for everyday usage any type centered on you (or a bit in front of your position) will be close enough to reality that navigating will be fine. For city planning the true size of things also matter a lot, as you mentioned. Long distance navigation doesn't use paper maps anymore except when GPS is jammed (which is not the norm if you aren't near Iran or Ukraine currently), and we are already on the way to make quantum navigation for ships feasable. In the case of aircraft, if GPS is down, there are more than enough alternative ways to navigate (communication with flight control, ground based beacons and so on, and long distance road travel will in 99% of cases use high tier roads which tend to have signs indicating where they go, in addition to navigation software that could adjust map projection on the fly if needed (but it isn't really needed, what you need is accurate lane and turn information, which is independent of what you see on the display).

I really don't understand the hive mind in this case. Anyone having some input here where the issue lies? I haven't touched a paper map where any of this stuff had mattered at least since the turn of the century.