Inconsistent distances on Google Maps (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm currently trying to get in better shape and to that end have started dieting and cycling in my local area. For motivation, I've decided to try to 'virtually' cycle from John O'Groats (henceforth JOG) in the north of Scotland to Land's End (LE) in the south of England.

To do this, I measure how far I cycle each day (locally) and record my progress, which I then use to map where I would be on the route Google Maps recommends for cycling (I'm handwaving altitude comparisons because it's just for fun).

Ok, so - Maps says the recommended cycling route from JOG to LE is 965 miles. Fine. I've covered 21.1 miles so far (I've only just started and am not very fit).

Now, on the full 965 mile route, that 21.1 miles gets me to a small village called Haimer. However, if I ask Maps to plot me a route from JOG to Haimer, Maps says it's only 18.7 miles.

I've tried the same thing with other towns on the route, and the same is true there too - there's a roughly 10% disparity, even though the route being plotted is identical. A few yards here or there I could understand, but a 10% difference?? FFS.

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[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Your answer might be all those blue squiggly bits in the first picture on the left. That part of Scotland seems to have a lot of hills. I bet the 18.7 miles doesn't take elevation into account at all, while the 21.1 miles does

(Oh, never mind, that's the whole route, while the shorter route in the second picture is "mostly flat". So maybe not.)

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Yeah, sorry, I maybe should have been clearer with that :-)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Maybe I would take a closer look as to where, exactly, Google puts the pin when you tell it to go to a town. If I tell Google Maps I want to walk to the village I am currently living in, it puts the pin in a random spot sort of in the middle of the village. (It happens to be in a parking lot by a bakery, so now I am hungry).

So, you may be measuring it with regard to when you reach the town limits on that road, but Google may be putting the pin in some oddball place, off the road you are biking down.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Possibly yeah. Although these are villages you'd drive through in about 5 seconds, so no matter where the pin is put it's not going to be 2 miles different. Maybe it's starting in a different place though, that might do it. Cheers, will check that out.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

It takes different turns probably. Inspect the two routes at very detail...

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

It could just be different parts of the town

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Good idea, but I've tried overlaying closer zoomed in screengrabs and the routes appear to be absolutely identical! So weird.

this post was submitted on 30 May 2025

22 points (100.0% liked)

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