Won't ever believe Google or Bing Maps again

[Ken_Breadbox]

Just back yesterday. Disney was great. The trip there and back, however...

We took the Virginias/Carolinas route down (we live in Waterloo). Our stopping point the first day was Charlotte, NC, at Drury Northlake, which was fantastic. However...

Google Maps says it's 12:54 door to door. Bing, using an almost identical route, says 11:41. I figured the real drive time was somewhere between the two.

Bzzzt.

It took 15 hrs that first day, with maybe an hour's worth of stops (including the border, which took all of 30 seconds). Call it 14 hrs drive time, and then consider the first two hours were on Ontario 400-series autobahns. The flow of traffic was doing 130 km/hr easy. Had we abided by posted limits (which are de facto minimums on the 401/403), it would have added at least half an hour, making the drive time 14:30.

Where does Bing get off saying 11:41? It'll tell you where it gets off. Jacksonville.

Charlotte to WDW was supposed to be 8:02. Whatever. It was exactly ten hours with minimal stops to take on gas and offload Red Bull. (I hope never to have to drink that stuff again.) Given the huge discrepancy the first day, it was very disappointing to see another the second.

It's bad when only DW drives. She had by far the hardest job; I had only to keep her awake.

The trip back, a straight shot up I-75, was supposed to be 45 minutes longer than the trip down. We were dreading this long before it started.

It ended up being just a little bit shorter, albeit still more than three hours over the projected drive time, even accounting for stops.

Next time we fly.

 

[Pumba's Truth]

Sorry to hear the miscalculations.

In my case Google has consistently been excessive in their times. I am ususally about 10-20% faster at the end of the day. Unless of course we have multiple pit stops, in which case we're usually pretty close.

We're in Ottawa and have done the drive down south a number of times. We end up stopping in Charlotte quite often as I have family there. Google estimates from Ottawa it's just over 15 hours, where I know for a fact it's closer to 14. Not a big difference but still.

So now, what we do is figure out what the mileage is going to be, break it down by what we expect our average speed, then add time per fill up (est. 15min) and then add time for food stops, then BINGO you have a good estimate of how long it might take you. All be it an over estimate.

We're flying this time out of Buffalo but still have significant driving to do when we arrive as we are arriving in ATL to pick up my son and then go down to WDW.

Good luck with your next trip and again sorry to hear that the times were so off.

 

[ccudmore]

I've found that TomTom's online planner gives MUCH more accurate times (and better routing) than either Google or Bing. I figure since it's their core business they make sure they do a better job at it. Their site is at www.routes.tomtom.com

 

[Tower]

I just checked from my door. We do follow the speed limit, esp. the area of Highway 19 between I79 & I77, and it came up with 11 hr, 1 min to Charlotte from our door. Bearing in mind the gas stops, food stops and border, it usually takes us 12 hours. Close enough for me.

 

[Alderbrook]

I am too leary to use any maps off the internet for that far of a drive. We always use the Triptiks from CAA, always accurate & awesome I found. I also find the GPS sucks as well & only use it if I get lost.

 

[cslittle999]

In my experience none of the map sites provide very accurate time estimates. This is why we keep trip logs for all of our long trips. It gives us enough real data on how we travel to be able to accurately predict how far we can drive.

For example I know that on a long drive on multi-lane highways we average 100 km traveled per hour of trip time. Ten hours of trip time equals 1000 km distance. Time for stops is accounted for by the speed limit being higher than 100 kph on most highways in the US.

 

[sjsjbrook]

Wow that must have been frustrating. But your total time added up to 24 hours, which is what I have always heard is the time it takes to drive there from Waterloo.

I agree though flying is a much better idea, you get more time at the parks.

 

[DbleTheFun]

I live smack down in the middle of Calgary AB, and Google Maps gives completely wrong direction to my house! They have my address about 20 minutes South of where it actually is... so I agree, Garmin/GPS are much more reliable than GoogleMaps!

 

[Nahanni]

We're doing the drive from Toronto to Charlotte in two weeks, I'll try to record the mileage and time.

 

[stefnik]

Google also says that it takes 10 hours to drive from Deer Lake, Nfld to St. Anthony, Nfld. It actually takes just less than 5 but I wonder how many people skip that visit!

 

[Nahanni]

Just got back from Georgia. Our driving distance to Charlotte, NC was 1240 km and driving time was 12:10 including a 40-minute gas and food break (cruising generally at 120kph on open roads but slower in traffic and speed zones). I did not allot time for a 2nd or 3rd break which we probably would have taken if we didn't stop in Pittsburgh for a 4hr visit to the Carnegie Science Center or our overnight stay in Beckley, WV.

I-77 has beautiful mountain scenery and the roads are well maintained but really hilly and full of turns with unforgiving shoulders. On our way down, one car had driven/rolled right across the northbound lanes landing in the far shoulder - I figured this to be because of darkness and light snow. The next morning is sunny and a tractor trailor rolled over. Returning home, 2 more cars rolled over into the ditches in dry, daylight conditions - definitely not a road for tired drivers or even short lapses of concentration.

We took the US-19 route through Summersville, WV and it is mostly 65mph with a couple of 50-55mph zones through commercial areas which is competely understandable.

Do many people take I-79/I-77 in the heart of winter or prefer I-75 or some other route? I'd prefer to fly to MCO but for 6 people its easily $3K from YYZ.

 

[damo]

It takes us 12 hours to get from Oakville to Charlotte, going through I79/77/US-19. We travel the route every couple of months with our dogs so we have normal bathroom breaks and a breakfast and lunch break (short breaks however).

We try to leave home around 6 am and are generally at our final destination by 10-10:30 pm. When we leave home, our GPS predicts our arrival to be 16 hours from our departure. It is generally pretty much dead on.

 

[Csaks]

I am too leary to use any maps off the internet for that far of a drive. We always use the Triptiks from CAA, always accurate & awesome I found. I also find the GPS sucks as well & only use it if I get lost.

The new Triptiks SUCK. I don't know why they changed them. The amount of detail is way less the the ones we had in '08.

 

[jtdl]

I will never trust Google maps again! Last summer I was taking my kids to the Detroit Zoo by myself. I printed out the map from Google maps and ended up in the very worst part of Detroit - nowhere near the zoo! When we managed to get into a nicer looking area, I stopped at a flower shop and the lady had absolutely no idea how to get to the zoo from there! I then ventured a little farther and stopped at a gas station - the people there also did not know how to get to the zoo - that's how far off this map had taken me! Finally the next gas station could give me directions and was I way off track. Had I stayed on the highway, it would've taken me directly to the zoo, but Google thought I needed a tour of the worst section of Detroit I guess and wow were we scared! What should've taken an hour at the most ended up taking 3 hours!

I haven't found any mistakes with Mapquest yet, accept the time, although they are usually pretty close. I have a GPS now and would never go without!

 

[jerlove]

Typically I find that if google maps or mapquest tells me it is going to take 12 hours it actually takes 10.5. I have never found them to be wrong on the other end.

 

[Ken_Breadbox]

Typically I find that if google maps or mapquest tells me it is going to take 12 hours it actually takes 10.5. I have never found them to be wrong on the other end.

I really don't know what we did wrong. We followed speed limits exactly (in the U.S., at least--on the Q.E.W. at that hour the speed limit seems to be abolished--and didn't get caught in much traffic. Other than being stalked by a psychotic FedEx truck through the mountains--pup trailer wagging furiously--we didn't even see the sorts of Road Rectums (tm) that are commonplace on the 401.
But we left at 3:00 a.m. and got to Drury Northlake at exactly 6:00 p.m. Brutal, brutal day.