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I will be driving down to College Station from Atlanta. Since it isn’t possible to make (for a sane person) that journey in one day, I plan to stop at New Orleans.
Google Maps expects us to travel between Atlanta and New Orleans within 9 hours 40 minutes. But cross-check the same route at Mapquest, the travel time is drastically reduced to 7 hours 23 minutes. The distance is the same whichever website you consult, so why the significant difference in travel time? Are they considering different speed limits? Anyone who has driven on the Interstates in America will vouch that no car ever sticks to the prescribed speed limit. As the popular advice (or myth?) goes, it is acceptable to go at the most 10 miles (per hour) over the speed limit. Also, it helps if you discreetly tailgate a speeding car; the cops are more likely to catch the guy in the front rather than the ones following him.
Anyway, getting back to the travel time between Atlanta and New Orleans disparity; the distance is approximately 469 miles. So even if you go at the prescribed speed limit (70 mph) on interstates outside city limits; you are likely to make that journey (driving non-stop) in almost 6.5 hours; still an hour less than recommended time.
Are map sites incorporating traffic conditions? But then they should be asking for time of departure/arrival. Do they have information on road conditions that may slow down your drive? I am not sure this is feasible given the continuous road work that you see on interstates. If anyone knows why, let me know.
by Patrix | on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 1:00 am | 
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July 26th, 2005 at 8:51 am reply
Even if you drive non-stop, you still have to stop for gas, to visit the facilities and to get something to eat/drink. Maybe, the mapping software has some additional time allowed for these things. And Google being a fun company, probably thinks that people will have more fun on the way and hence, longer time to travel. I don’t think it is possible to keep track of construction and add those delays in these calculations.
You are right about not going the whole distance in one shot. Once, I did 1200 miles from Omaha, NE to Princeton, NJ in 22 hours straight. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. :)
July 26th, 2005 at 11:02 am reply
Maps do not factor in traffic conditions (’cause it’s not possible). That said, I’ve found that long drives take approximately the time given unless you diverge too much from the route.
July 26th, 2005 at 11:49 am reply
Thanks, Parag and Selva, considering you both have done similar long drives, your advice helps.
July 26th, 2005 at 2:37 pm reply
Yeah, like Parag, we once did a long drive from Orlando to NJ. Out of curiosity I just checked on Mapquest and it is approximately 1060 miles and they estimate 16 hours 33 minutes, thats at 64.5 miles/per hour! We took about 18 hours and did it in one shot with two drivers.
Having driven a lot on the interstates over the last 4 years, I know that you can hope to do about 60-65 mph on an average including rest area stops, but this is over longer distances where you can make up the time lost in stopping.
After that analysis, makes it easy to believe in “Google is a fun company”! :-)
-Mangesh
July 26th, 2005 at 2:53 pm reply
If you can lay your hands on Microsoft Street and Maps, you can get some sort of idea about construction ahead. For real time road information to be on a map, that might be tough. There might be commercial trucking softwares which might do that, but not seen anything in the public domain
I am also surprised by the wide disparity between mapquest and google. mebbe google knows something that mapquest does not :)
best of luck for your road trip and your Phd also…
July 27th, 2005 at 8:50 pm reply
My experience has been the same as Mangesh; no matter how fast I push it on open road, there is always a construction area or metro-area clog-up that limits my trip average to 60-65 mph.
Godspeed!
July 28th, 2005 at 5:30 am reply
Well, haven’t lived in the US long enough to realize these gaps. But the couple of times we drove from Stamford CT to Boston, the distance/time mentioned in mapquest was true to our actual driving time i.e., around 3 and a half hours. Ditto with driving time to Washington.
July 28th, 2005 at 10:50 pm reply
Thanks Mangesh and Ujwal for your inputs. I made it to New Orleans in about 8 hours including 5 stops that took almost an hour and half off from the travel time. So I guess I made the average between Mapquest and Google. I had to slow down a little towards the end due to a freak thunderstorm but otherwise it was a smooth ride.
Parker, I guess all stops and delays included, it does average out to about a mile a minute. Ramana, I guess Mapquest has a soft corner for you :)