Internet route planners~how accurate?

[momtotwinglesx4]

We're driving from NW Illinois to WDW in December. I entered the same starting point and destination into 3 different route planners: FreeTrip.com, MapQuest, and MapsOnUs.com. All 3 gave similar totals for mileage (range 1323 to 1337 miles), but they varied quite a bit on travel time. FreeTrip said 20 hrs, 25 min.; MapQuest said 22 hrs. 4 min. ; MapsOnUs said 26 hrs. 9 min! That's almost 6 hrs. difference between the low and high!

Can anyone tell me which of these route planners is the most accurate, or if there is another one that I haven't mentioned here that is a good one?

TIA,

Sue

 

[dsnycrzy]

DO NOT DO MAPSONUS.

I put in my address in DE. to go to Roxboro, NC. A 6 1/2 trip took me 10HOURS the 1st time due to there switching around on the map. All I had to do was 95 to 85 to 58 to 501. And I'm right in front of the door but this map had me lost in the heart of DC somewhere and then it had a couple more turn offs that if you read further down in the map, you'd be back on 95. So I stayed on 95 and ran right into 85 etc, etc.

Look at all the maps and see where the main intersates are you need to be on and go with that, I guess.

 

[Lewisc]

I agree, go with whichever one has the best routing. Forget about the time. Different programs assume that you'll drive at different speeds. Some programs assume rest stops other don't.

 

[BornABrook]

I've always used Mapquest for my road trips. Generally I find the time they give me to be relatively close, if a bit conservative. However, when I used Mapquest to plan my route from here in NE Ohio to a ski resort in Quebec, I got some outrageous time estimate. I'd calculated my driving time manually and wasn't sure if I was the one who was way wrong or if they were. In the end I figured that there was something goofy going on with their kilometer conversions, since Canada measures in kilometers instead of miles. When I instead ran the directions from here to the Canadian border, and then from the border to my destination, I got a time more in line with my own estimate.

What I like to do is to calculate the driving time manually using my road atlas. I always have doubts as to how accurate my numbers are, and like to hear from other people who have traveled the same general route when possible, but so far I've always come very close. If you use Excel, you can easily just list the # of miles for each road, then the speed limit for that location (different states have different speed limits on the Interstates) and quickly blow the formula across all the numbers to calculate how many minutes it would take you to drive that many miles at that speed. Excel also makes it easy to play around with hypotheticals such as, "If I average 5mph over the speed limit, I'll save this much time..".

But then I think doing weird things like that is fun, whereas most people would probably think I was nuts, so feel free to completely ignore me.

Brook