Calculate straight line distance using geocodes

You may need to calculate a distance between two areas that do not share the same distance engine for distance and transit time retrieval. Alternatively, the distance may be between areas where one or both addresses may not have a distance engine for distance and transit time retrieval specified.

In either case, geocodes are used to calculate the straight-line distance between the two points and apply a factor to account for the earth’s curvature. The straight-line distance multiplied by a factor is the distance returned at rating. An approximate transit time is also calculated using a transit time factor. You set up these factors in Distance Adjustment of Global Settings in the Environment module.

Example:

Computed Distance = 1,500
Distance adjustment = 1.15
Transit time factor = 80

The computed distance is multiplied by distance adjustment factor to obtain the approximate distance, in this example 1,500 x 1.15 = 1,725.

This approximate distance is divided by the transit time factor to obtain an estimated transit time, in this example 1,725/80 = 21.56 hours.