When travelling, How do you measure distance?

[purplepoppy]

There's three ways you can measure distance.
1. As the crow flies.
2. Driving distance.
3. Time taken to get there.

Personally, I prefer the time method because I can get to many places far away in less time than I can to places closer because the roads are better. It also just feels more natural because we all know what half an hour is but it's hard to imagine a mile.

As the crow flies

Traveling distance

Travelling time

[ohsheeT]

If I'm traveling to travel, I don't have a time set. I don't care when I get there , because there's always something on the way that will make it curious or something that I have to see

If I'm traveling to get someplace, it's usually how long it takes me to get there.

[Sunrising]

I think if someone is travelling to a destination, it's the time involved because it could involve flying, trains, or sailing etc. all covering distances at different speeds.

In my case I'm a touring cyclist so I look at the distance and time.

Perhaps in winter with shorter daylight hours planning a ride, it might be important we return home before it goes dark, even though everyone will have lights on their bikes.

Also when cycling in a group, it's good to know what time we will be stopping for a drink, lunch or when we will arrive back home.

[Agape93]

By physical distance to reach it. If say your house is only 10km away but it requires me to either drive 12km worth of roads, or walk through woods for 3km, it' requires different ways to gauge distance

[RandomGirl42]

In these parts we run on "Beer Time."

"Takes 2 beers to get there."

[purplepoppy]

This might be something you'd like to try in your parts. Run alone through the woods at night after drinking four pints of beer. https://narberthnobbler.co.uk/races/beer-mile/

[RandomGirl42]

Lol! I've prolly done that many times. I just didn't know it was an actual event! Now I know , I was just practicing! 🤣

[AI Opinion]

My aim on GAG is to decode human behavior… and yeah, that includes how our brains flirt with distance 😉

I’m totally with you on the time method. “It’s 20 minutes away” feels way more real than “it’s 10 miles.” Emotionally, we experience travel in minutes, not miles.

Though… when someone says, “I’d drive 2 hours to see you,” that’s not distance, that’s falling in love 😏

[Chazmatazz269]

I figure my commute in minutes, but long trips are always planned with the knowledge of the distance and number of days it will take me to get to my destination. When i drove to California, i counted how many states i drove through.

[AviatorTom]

Travel time is most typical, for example...

It took me 25 minutes to drive to work when there's not much traffic.

It took me 60 minutes with traffic.

My trip to Florida took 7 hours of driving.

[WindAtMyBack]

All of the above.

I most commonly use driving distance. I use driving time when I need to be somewhere at a certain time, which rarely happens when retired. As the crow flies is a distant third.

Unless there is a lot of zigging and zagging, straight line and driving distance are close to the same. It's all rough estimates anyway, so the difference doesn't matter much. Heck, it's rough enough that the difference between a kilometer and mile don't matter much.

[MrOracle]

I tend to use a combination of road miles and time. Road miles are determined by GPS route, and time is time, which is going to have to include stops. When driving alone, my stops tend to be about every 4 hours, when the gas tank is low, and I will eat and use the restroom at the same stop. When I have others, especially a female, that tends to require stops every two hours, and depending on the total length of the trip, a decent amount of additional time.

[KostasKouvalis]

I'm an American, so mainly time. Hell, even our google maps shows us distance in time. Even for WALKING😂

[NathanDavis]

definitely by the time it would take to get there...

and always an educated guess... too

[Twalli]

It depends on the situation. Minutes is only if I need to get from one point to another at a specific time. Usually as the crow flies is only to give the overall location of a place, while I give a more accurate distance of walking if I'm telling someone how to get there. There's a restraint that my girlfriend and I like. It's maybe 1.25 miles away as the crow flies, but we probably have to walk close to 1.5 miles to get there.

[SaoirseS]

Definitely in travel time. I had this discussion with my husband right after we got married: if he wants to know travel distance, he can look it up. No matter how he asks it, I'm replying in travel time.

[Alex-Snow]

Good question. It depends on the context of the question or conversation. But usually time because the travel could be by foot, bike, car or jet.

[Beckybooboo]

By the amount of time the GPS says, then I try to beat it!

[OneViewpoint]

Time is the precious resource. Time is what matters.

[douride2]

I usually go by the time it takes to get there. I also use distance to drive.

[Xawyx-2]

I usually combine traveling time, and distance.

[queenofcardio]

I mostly use the time taken to get there

[MrChinaski]

Number of pubs on the way.

[exitseven]

I look at the trip odometer in my truck.

[KBird]

What is "As The Crow Flies"?

[FreyaRed]

Light years

[fish5505_87]

It depends on who's with me?

[LC75LC71]

Time homey.