Travel routes
Is there a book or soft ware app that shows the best travel route to destinations?
Forum Discussion
No books. There are computer apps, phone apps, and online services that will calculate travel routes for you, and include intermediate destinations if you have those, and possibly travel preferences.
For a lengthy trip, there is no "best" travel route because that is subjective, a compromise that depends on a traveler's preferences for several factors that must be balanced: travel time, distance, cost, avoidance of cities, mountain roads, toll roads, heavy traffic, etc. I travel several times a year between NE Oklahoma and southern Michigan and there are hundreds of different ways to go, and there are about eight equally good route variations I regularly use today, depending on season, weather, and what time of the week. These are not the same routes I used 35 years ago because the roads and city congestion problems have changed over time.
Most online and computer route calculations will assume you want minimum travel time using superhighways and toll roads as much as possible, and might take you on a longer route, more distance and time, to keep you on that type of road.
I've used Microsoft Streets and Trips (no longer available) for the past ten years because this program makes it easy for me to force my preferences in the planning, and to quickly try a lot of options to see what might better suit my needs for a particular trip.
For a lengthy trip, there is no "best" travel route because that is subjective, a compromise that depends on a traveler's preferences for several factors that must be balanced: travel time, distance, cost, avoidance of cities, mountain roads, toll roads, heavy traffic, etc. I travel several times a year between NE Oklahoma and southern Michigan and there are hundreds of different ways to go, and there are about eight equally good route variations I regularly use today, depending on season, weather, and what time of the week. These are not the same routes I used 35 years ago because the roads and city congestion problems have changed over time.
Most online and computer route calculations will assume you want minimum travel time using superhighways and toll roads as much as possible, and might take you on a longer route, more distance and time, to keep you on that type of road.
I've used Microsoft Streets and Trips (no longer available) for the past ten years because this program makes it easy for me to force my preferences in the planning, and to quickly try a lot of options to see what might better suit my needs for a particular trip.
