News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

Do trip planning software (and apps) consider time zone changes?

Started by Hot Rod Hootenanny, March 13, 2017, 08:45:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Hot Rod Hootenanny

What I mean (in my subject line) is that when one plots out a trip, that crosses time zone lines, does the program include the gain/loss of time? Be it Google maps, or Delormes Street Atlas, or any other web or stand alone program.
I'll give an example (if my explanation is still clear as mud); I'm traveling from Columbus to Baton Rouge next month. Google says it will take 15 hrs for me (I-71-65-40-55-12). Should I be counting 14 hrs (because I gain a hour going from Eastern to Central), or does that 15 hrs already include the time gained?
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above


oscar

Microsoft's discontinued Streets and Trips software (which I'm still using, for familiarity, it gives me a durable record of my travels, and works where no Internet connection or cellphone/wireless signal is available) will alert you to a time zone change, but let you figure out its effect. After all, it has no way of knowing whether, say, a planned trip from New Mexico to Arizona will be made in the summer (when New Mexico is on DST but most of Arizona isn't), or winter (when there is no time zone difference). I'm not sure how it handles the time zone difference for Navajo lands in Arizona (follow New Mexico time, along with that state's Navajo lands), or the Hopi enclave within Navajo lands (always follows Arizona time).

I'm not sure any trip planning software is smart enough to deal with border cities that unofficially follow the neighboring city's time zone, like Hyder AK (follows Pacific time like Stewart BC, rather than Alaska time like most of the rest of Alaska), Wendover UT and West Wendover NV (IIRC, both follow Nevada time even though Utah is in a different time zone), Flin Flon and Creighton SK (follow Flin Flon MB time, even when everywhere in Manitoba is on DST and almost everywhere else in Saskatchewan isn't), and Lloydminster SK (always follows Lloydminster AB time, which differs from normal Saskatchewan time in the winter).

It's a lot simpler to assume that the software is making no time zone adjustment, and figure out what if any adjustment you need to make.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

1995hoo

My suggestion would be to use the same software to plot yourself a short itinerary across a time zone line and see what it does. Maybe use Columbus, Georgia (Eastern Time), to Phenix City, Alabama (Central Time, though most of the town uses Eastern due to Columbus being a bigger neighbor), and just plot it out from one end of the 13th Street Bridge to the other. It's less than a mile, so the time should reflect that.

I just attempted to do that using Apple Maps on my iPad but it kept trying to "correct" the starting location to somewhere else, so I gave up.

Edited to add: I just tried it in Google Maps. It cited a distance of 0.3 miles across the river and said it would take one minute. So it's giving actual travel time.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

epzik8

From the land of red, white, yellow and black.
____________________________

My clinched highways: http://tm.teresco.org/user/?u=epzik8
My clinched counties: http://mob-rule.com/user-gifs/USA/epzik8.gif

briantroutman

I know from experience that Apple Maps shows the travel time in terms of actual hours and minutes of travel, but the app also displays a running ETA clock that does take time zone changes into account.

For example, if I was five minutes east of the ET/CT boundary and entered a destination that was five minutes west of the boundary, I'd see:

Current time: 8:10 a.m.
Travel time: 10 min.
Distance: 10 mi.
7:20 a.m. arrival



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.