How accurate is mapquest?

[Doctordestiny]

I put in Caroline and Drayton Valley and it tells me it's 1 hour, 48 minutes. A friend who has driven it multiple times tells me it's well less than that, probably under 1:30. He doesn't speed. Can mapquest be relied on for accuracy?

[ricosuave]

I've driven lots of times to Drayton Valley, its about 2:45 from here, doing the speed limit, so with Caroline being abour 1:30 away from here, I could believe it.

[BlackArcher101]

These websites often use the speed limits on the roads to calculate the time... some of the back roads are 90 or 80 km/hr, but yet people will rarely go below 100, so real life time and estimated times usually differ.

For example, google maps says this for Caroline to Drayton Valley.
150 km – about 2 hours 27 mins
Looks like they have slower speed limits and/or high time estimates to pass through the small towns such as Rocky Mountain House.

So whenever estimating times I look at the distance only, then calculate my own. Using 100 km/hr average, it would be 1.5 hours, plus time for slowing through rocky, minus time if you speed.

[Doctordestiny]

But to reduce the travel time from 1:48 down to under 1:30 (say, 1:25) is a 21% reduction, which equates to a lot of speeding. This guy doesn't drive like that. I wonder if mapquest is really accurate.

[Rathji]

Google Maps > Mapquest.

[MelBridgeman]

Well, let’s hit up Yahoo Maps to find the dopest route.
I prefer Map Quest.
That’s a good one, too.
Google Maps is the best.
True that.
DOUBLE TRUE.

[GGG]

I find google maps is quite acurate on longer trips (5 hours plus) when I speed slightly (10%) and stop every 2 to 3 hours to eat or get gas. If you don't stop usually you can beat the google times.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Doctordestiny

But to reduce the travel time from 1:48 down to under 1:30 (say, 1:25) is a 21% reduction, which equates to a lot of speeding. This guy doesn't drive like that. I wonder if mapquest is really accurate.

What is your mapquest saying for distance. I never look at speeds, they never seem to be accurate.

Using a distance of 150km, your 1:48 turns out to be an average speed of 83.3 km/hr. If you wanted to make it there in 1:25, you'd have to travel at about 105 km/hr average speed. Most online maps have secondary highway speeds incorrect (ie 80 km/hr still), but in reality most are 100 km/hr limits. Using google for example again, they estimate nearly 2:30 for the trip, which is an average speed of 61 km/hr which is clearly wrong.


edit:
Here's a comparison of some mapping sources using: Caroline to Drayton Valley, all routes calculated for "fastest time" not shortest distance.
(Source - Distance | Hr:Min Travel Time | Calculated Average Speed)

Mapquest - 151.4 km | 1:48 | 84.1 km/hr
Google Maps - 150 km | 2:27 | 61.2 km/hr
Yahoo Maps - 151.7 km | 1:50 | 82.8 km/hr
Bing Maps - 148.7 km | 1:51 | 80.4 km/hr
mapblast.com (msn) - 151.4 | 1:44 | 87.3 km/hr
Navteq Map24 - 150.4 km | 2:45 | 54.7 km/hr (Note: Manually located Caroline, wouldn't search it)
Garmin Mapsource software - 150 km | 2:06 | 71.4 km/hr

Distance inconsitencies are partially due to just naming the town instead of an address for a start/finish point, so the location of the town varies from source to source. As you can see, all the times vary quite a big, exemplifying why I don't bother looking at them and the source of that problem is wrong speed limits in the map database.

[Madman]

Make sure you are looking at the data sources of the sites you visit, that will affect how distances and speeds are calculated.

For example, Google uses Tele Atlas data and others use Navteq.