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Rating: 
Summary: Map Merger IMPROVES Already Excellent Atlas
Review: Bad things can happen when a big company takes over a smaller company and that was my fear when Rand McNally bought Thomas Bros. My fears were unfounded and, in fact, it appears that The Thomas Guides have been improved! Anybody who lives in an area that has been mapped by Thomas Bros knows that The Thomas Guides are excellent and indispensable [The Thomas Guides are such a major part of the culture in southern California that when Thomas Bros changed the pagination of the map books in the early 1990's people involved with deliveries, emergency services, and real estate (houses in SoCal are listed by Thomas Guide pages and grids) had their lives dirsrupted as they had to learn the new page numbers]. It is with great relief and excitement that I tell you that the 2003 edition of the California Road Atlas is much better than previous editions.The good parts of this atlas are still there: the tradtional Thomas Bros Pagefinder map, the excellent coverage of urban areas at smaller scales, the easy to use index with page numbers and grids clearly listed. But the large scale maps are much easier to read [less clunky symbols, better color scheme, shaded relief]. My one complaint is that the color used for unclassified roads [my favorite kind] is often hard to see against the background color [especially the green used for National Forests]. I highly recommend this atlas to anybody who needs a highway atlas of California with detailed maps of urban areas. If you are a fanatic about those unclassified roads I mentioned earlier, this atlas will get you to the point where you're going to pull off the main highway, but you'll need a more detailed atlas [such as those done by DeLorme] to continue your journey. I've always felt this was a 5 star atlas. The improvements make me wish I could give it 6 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Map Merger IMPROVES Already Excellent Atlas
Review: Bad things can happen when a big company takes over a smaller company and that was my fear when Rand McNally bought Thomas Bros. My fears were unfounded and, in fact, it appears that The Thomas Guides have been improved! Anybody who lives in an area that has been mapped by Thomas Bros knows that The Thomas Guides are excellent and indispensable [The Thomas Guides are such a major part of the culture in southern California that when Thomas Bros changed the pagination of the map books in the early 1990's people involved with deliveries, emergency services, and real estate (houses in SoCal are listed by Thomas Guide pages and grids) had their lives dirsrupted as they had to learn the new page numbers]. It is with great relief and excitement that I tell you that the 2003 edition of the California Road Atlas is much better than previous editions. The good parts of this atlas are still there: the tradtional Thomas Bros Pagefinder map, the excellent coverage of urban areas at smaller scales, the easy to use index with page numbers and grids clearly listed. But the large scale maps are much easier to read [less clunky symbols, better color scheme, shaded relief]. My one complaint is that the color used for unclassified roads [my favorite kind] is often hard to see against the background color [especially the green used for National Forests]. I highly recommend this atlas to anybody who needs a highway atlas of California with detailed maps of urban areas. If you are a fanatic about those unclassified roads I mentioned earlier, this atlas will get you to the point where you're going to pull off the main highway, but you'll need a more detailed atlas [such as those done by DeLorme] to continue your journey. I've always felt this was a 5 star atlas. The improvements make me wish I could give it 6 stars.
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