Like most people, Mapquest has been my default map and directions-getting website for years. However, last year when I was planning my summer drive home, it gave me outrageous times and some towns don’t even exist in their database. Can anyone suggest a better trip planning site?
I am looking to travel from Baltimore, MD to Barons, Alberta, Canada. As Barons is a flyspeck, the nearest city is Lethbridge, 20 km away. After that, we will be heading to Yellowknife, NT - but we know the way and times for that drive.
Can anyone suggest anything for me? We are leaving on Friday.
(If this belongs in IMHO, my apologies and please send it over.)
It’s not online, alas, but Microsoft’s Streets & Trips generally does an excellent job, and it’s fairly cheap (if you hunt around, you can get it for about $30). I plugged “Baltimore” and “Barons, Alberta” into it, and it quickly produced a reasonable-looking route, including a warning or two about some construction zones along the way. Quite a trip: over 2300 miles, 4+ days (unless you tell it otherwise, it assumes an 8-hour driving day).
It is quite a trip. I did it on my own (with my then-nine-year-old son) last year. This year, Dave is going with me, flying back here, then flying to Alberta to meet us for the drive home. A Grand Trip, indeed.
By the way, here’s the condensed version of the MS S&T recommended route: I-70 from Baltimore to Pennsylvania, I-76 to Ohio, I-80 to Chicago, I-294 around Chicago, I-90 to Rockford, I-39 up into Wisconsin, I-90 and I-94 to Minneapolis, I-694 to the north side of Minneapolis, I-94 to Glendive, Montana, Route 200/US 87/US 89 to Great Falls (passing south of the center of town), I-15 to Alberta, crossing at Sweetgrass, Route 4 to Lethbridge, Routes 3 & 23 to Barons.
Do you belong to AAA? You can get a Triptik online now – with updated construction and speed trap information, all the stuff that their staff would add. Even if you’re not, AAA Maps is pretty good on its own, but only if you’re using a browser that can handle its really stupid setup.
That’s pretty close to what I was planning. This time I won’t get lost in Chicago, as we’ll be going through rather than spending the night.
In fact, I stayed overnight in Glendive, Montana last year. If you follow Mapquest’s directions, once you hit Glendive, you take a down turn to follow the Interstate all the way through, adding about 5 hours’ driving time. No, thank you! I took 200/87/89 to I-15 and crossed at Sweetgrass. Mom & Dad are only about two and a half hours’ drive from Great Falls. I think the only hazard doing so is having to watch more carefully for critters on the road, and not as many places to stop.
This time next week I’ll be in Montana, one day from home!
Mapquest probably assumes that a road that’s not even a “U.S. Route something” is going to be a slower alternative. That would be a good assumption back East, but not out there. Here on the East Coast, in fact, even the “U.S. Route somethings” are often poor choices, because they go through the centers of a lot of towns, and they’re loaded with traffic lights. Not quite the same situation in central Montana! The folks who programmed Mapquest don’t realize that most of those roads through Montana are well-maintained, and are wide open, 75 mph romps.
I’ve had some real bad directions from both Mapquest and Mapblast. The worst one I ever had was when I was trying to figure out about how long it would take to get from Piscataway, NJ (central Jersey) to Derry, NH (southeastern NH). It basically gave me directions to Boston, put me on 95 North, had me drive up through New Hampshire into Maine, continue to Portland, get on the overnight ferry over to Nova Scotia, and then “proceed 4500 miles SE on local roads.”
I plotted it out. Assuming I didn’t drown driving across the Atlantic Ocean, I would have ended up in Cameroon.
And no, it wasn’t a glitch. I tried it from several computers, and got the same result every time.
