I've been told by a couple of private pilots in the past 40-50 years that following roads is sometimes the easiest way to navigate...if they already know, for example, that Interstate xx goes straight to whatever city.
In the early 1970s while in the USAF, one of my railfan friends was an air traffic controller at Wright Patterson AFB outside of Dayton OH, where we were both stationed. I joked one day that they probably told the inbound planes to follow I-70 to the 'white church' and turn left. He didn't deny it. I don't recall there being any white churches in the vicinity along I-70, either. Perhaps they used some other landmark to identify when to line up with the runway. He also relayed a story where TWA landed without notice at WPAFB as the Dayton airport (in Vandalia) is only 10 miles away and in all likelihood, the TWA pilot was asked by the DAY tower if they 'saw the runway', which they did.