> Sadly, Google Maps does everything they can to prevent you from doing this, e.g. not showing street names at all unless you zoom in to ridiculous levels
This has been my pet peeve as well. I do use Gmaps to show me the route and then I ride it on my bike without looking at the phone but if it is a route that I don't know yet I would like which street to turn at, all the while Gmaps refusing to be a map and telling me what the name of the street is.
Gmaps seems to be less of a map, more of a directory of locations and instructions how to get to those, so the actual streets on which the locations are is not interesting to GMaps at all and it doesn't put any effort into that usecase.
This has been my pet peeve as well. I do use Gmaps to show me the route and then I ride it on my bike without looking at the phone but if it is a route that I don't know yet I would like which street to turn at, all the while Gmaps refusing to be a map and telling me what the name of the street is.
Gmaps seems to be less of a map, more of a directory of locations and instructions how to get to those, so the actual streets on which the locations are is not interesting to GMaps at all and it doesn't put any effort into that usecase.