Hay BobY and Milum ... you are partly right but mostly wrong.
In my early driving days - late 1940s - I had an unerring sense of direction and could find my way quickly and correctly by instinct ... A talent that fliers call "seat of the pants reckoning" and a talent much desired by pilots
In later years (late 1950s, early 1960s)I was manager of an American Automobile Association (AAA) office and during training was introduced to map reading and learned, too, that all AAA maps fold the exact same way.
Any AAA travel agent - yes, the ones who make up your maps and TripTix -AND they're mostly women these days -will clue you in, it's easy.
As to giving directions - Ask Cap Kiwi if he had any problems finding my house with the directions I gave him!
So there.
(Where is that auditory raspberry emoticon when you need it?)