I just tried out the latest of the Google Maps ‘hacks’ and this one is brilliant. Checked a couple of the routes I run, and they were within .1k overall, so probably that can be accounted for by my error in accurately clicking the map. Check it out:
http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/
(sorry I can not post a clickable link on this forum as I won’t use a Microsoft browser…
Get Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ )
really cool! I knew about google maps, but where did this come from?
That is very cool.
Unfortunatley, it wasn’t remotely accurate for my daily run route.
Garmin Forerunner = 6.5 miles (within .1 every time)
This site - 5.4 mile.
That’s quite a difference…
I just used Google Maps for the first time the other day, and this makes it even better.
Thanks! Found out my usual run route is just under 10k.
Hmm… not sure why that would be (that mine was accurate and yours was not). For what it is worth I plotted out my route on the Satellite view rather than the Map view. If they were off in your area, that might make a difference, though probably not that much?
Here’s a neat little app that lets you see both the Satellite view and the Map view overlaid on each other:
Cool tool - I used it to give me a rough estimate of the training route I proposed for our weekly race team training ride this Saturday. I think the accuracy is dependent on the level to which the map is zoomed since the map’s api simply draws straight lines between two segments without regard for surface features or roads. The more the map is zoome din, the easier it is to click precise waypoints to connect the dots!
I found it to be pretty accurate.
I live in Chicago where the whole city is on a grid and the addresses are set up so that every 800 is a mile. I moved the map to Chicago and clicked it every 800 (for you Chi town residents–State & Madison to Halsted to Ashland to Western then up to Chicago to Fullerton to Belmont then all the way back to Halsted).
Finding: The thing is pretty darn accurate. Even with the stage by stage (adding a little appx error in there with each point) I had less than 5% off the true distance. When I tried doing it over longer distances to get the appx errors out, it was even more accurate.
For the guy who found diffn’t with the Garmin, is your route curvy? This would explain why Garmin might find a longer distance and if you don’t plot out the curves on the Google it will give you shorter. I would say it might be hills but if it’s truly GPS based, that isn’t 3d so it shouldn’t erroneously add “up” mileage to your mileage travelled (which is a traditional problem with pedometer based distances, by the way).
Thanks for the fantastic link, I will be charting new paths all night!
seems much easier and funner to use google earth. it already has a nice plotter function to map out routes.
Wouldn’t that make a pedometer more accurate and a GPS less? If I’m running up and down hills, I’m technically traveling a greater distance, right?
I don’t know why I’ve never thought about this before, and even though I know that I’m right, something about it still doesn’t seem right to me. If I take a hilly course and magically lay it flat from end to end, the total distance of the road is longer than if I measured a 2-dimensional point-to-point, right?
Way cool. From the satilite view I used it to map my morning swims in Lake Arrowhead.
yes more accurate to count the uphill distance except they don’t do it for races. You have to go the 10k “as the crow flies” so you want to be careful training for a hilly course.
That is pretty neat. And it seems accurate compared to my normal route that I use my Timex S+D to measure. Within 10% at worst.
I’ll have to check out Google earth too.
first answer no. GPS is going to be the most accurate(if you have enough satelites)
second answer yes
third answer is yes.
The tool is neat but I don’t think it takes topographical changes into account so if it is hilly the mapping function is going to tell you it is a shorter distance than it actually is. Neat but not accurate unless you got no elevation changes
This is the greatest thing since tube socks.
Ditto here. Most of the routes I have measured are not accurate, abut 20% off at least. It’s cool but not as super useful because of that.
I’ll try it again zoomed in a bit more. It’s a curvy route I usually run…
Are you clicking multiple points in the curve or just the end points?
I wish there was something like this but that did elevation changes like the Klimb program.
Thanks so much!
This is GREAT!
Double click.