With all the time and energy cartographers spend preparing maps, it makes sense that they would want to protect their investment. One of the ways they do so — although they don’t always admit it — is by including “trap streets,” deliberate mistakes added to maps to catch unsuspecting copyright violators. These may include fake streets, as the name suggests, but the term is also applied to other erroneous cartographic data included to embarrass those who might steal it. — atlasobscura.com
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This phenomenon makes a contribution to the John Green novel Paper Towns, which I recommend. However, since the takeaway from the article is that you can't trust anything you don't witness yourself, perhaps you shouldn't believe my recommendation.
I want to read the rest of his books. I read Looking for Alaska before John Green was uber-popular among teenagers.
Mark Monmonier's How to Lie with Maps is very good on this topic.
^ available online as a PDF. Interesting read.
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