How to Estimate Your Road Trip Duration with Google Maps
Planning out your motorcycle road trip with Google Maps is the quicker, cheaper alternative to using an actual GPS devise. While Google Maps can be a big help when it comes to planning your rout there are several things you can do to enhance the accuracy and usefulness of this tool, especially when calculating the duration. This can be especially helpful when you need to reach certain destinations within a certain time frame. Let’s take a look at what can be done to ensure that you can accurately plan the duration of your motorcycle trip using Google Maps.
The Default Calculation
When you type in a starting location and a destination Google Maps automatically gives you a calculated travel time. This calculation can be accurate or it can be incredibly inaccurate, depending on a huge variety of factors. The travel time is located via speed limit data gathered from public records and road signs provided by Google Maps data providers. This would be fine if you could guarantee that you would travel at each specific speed limit for each area. However, as well all know, this isn’t always possible.
Variable Travel Speed
While Google Maps provides a travel time based on speed limits it can’t cover other factors. Things such as traffic, school zones, accidents, bad weather and many other factors can slow your travel speed and contribute to inaccurate travel time estimation. Additionally, if you’re traveling faster than the speed limit in some areas that can also contribute towards an inaccurate estimation. This is especially true on interstates since people tend to travel faster than the speed limit there.
Improving Travel Time Accuracy
One way of improving the accuracy of the duration of your motorcycle road trip is to get regular updates on the travel time provided by Google Maps. This will required a couple of things to do though. First you must have a mobile device capable of accessing Google Maps so you can check it as you go. Second of all you will have to be within a city to get an updated estimate.
For example, let’s say you’re traveling from San Diego to Houston. You can start by getting the travel estimate at your starting location, then at each city you come to replace the starting location in Google Maps with the new city name and get a new estimate. While this isn’t quite as good a method as using an actual GPS to get real time trip duration estimates it is a good free alternative.
Google Maps Forums
There are forums for Google Maps where you can get additional data. You can post and ask if the travel estimate from your starting point to the destination is accurate and get feedback on what to expect. You can also see if there is anything in particular on your rout that may slow you down. Don’t forget to mention that you’re using a motorcycle, this could have a big impact on the advice you get.
You can also ask if anyone who’s driven a similar rout to yours has their own estimate as to about how long it takes. The more people you can get to talk to you about their experience the better since it will help to improve your own estimate.
Considering the Weather
Bad weather is a much bigger problem for those traveling by motorcycle than those who’re using a car or truck. Due to this fact it is very important that you check the weather in advance before you start out on your trip. If you’re traveling a particularly long distance you will probably want to get weather forecasts for each segment of your journey. You can use the Google Maps travel estimates as well as the estimates you get from the forums and other sources to get an idea of when you’ll be passing through each area of your journey.
While Google Maps is a handy tool for calculating road trip duration it isn’t 100% perfect. More than anything your own experiences and the experiences of others will be a better indicator of how long it will take to get from one place to another. Also, don’t forget to use Google Maps to update your estimate as you pass through each city if you don’t have a GPS. This will further refine the accuracy of your travel estimate as you go.
Sam is an avid Harley rider who loves nothing more than packing up his saddlebags and heading out onto the open road!
