A very cool new Planning Tool

The CostToDrive Crew has created a new free road trip planning tool that allows one to calculate the driving cost between two places. The starting & ending places can be identified by zip code or city and state. The application uses mapping and distance algorithms together with the EPA mileage data (all you need to do is enter your car model and year) to calculate the driving cost.

The results also include fuel station locations, flight costs (for comparison shopping) and some other fun stuff.

Check it out here and post some reviews below!

It is similar in ways to RTA's Fuel Cost Calculator -- do you like it better? No matter what, it's a cool application.

Thanks,

Mark

Its a neat tool. My favorite feature is how it estimates where you will need to refuel and bases the fuel costs on that specific location. The numbers for fuel cost are seem accurate too. It says I'll be paying $2.10 to fill up before I leave, and the station down the street from my house is charging $2.099.

The one thing that makes it a little less practical, I'm going to know my actual mpg better than an EPA estimate. For example, on my SUV, I usually get 21 mpg on the highway, but it uses a figure of 24, and on my wife's car, it acutally uses the wrong estimate. Her car with a 5 speed transmission gets an estimated 37 mpg from the epa, and gets about 34 in real world conditions, but the program uses a figure of 31 mpg (I assume this is based on auto transmission). Those numbers throw off both how much fuel I'll need and when Ill need to refuel, an override option would be nice, although that makes it closer to the RTA program.

I was also able to "stump" the program by building a route that would include a refuel stop in Canada (cutting from Michigan to New York). It knew a fuel stop was needed, but didn't have a price, so it skipped that stop in the date.

I just fed it a cross country route, which you can see Here.

The problem is that if they have no data on gas prices at your estimated stop they use a $0 costing instead of taking an average price. As you can see it has estimated the total cost at $181 because of this [average of $1.59 per gallon] whereas the overall cost in reality would be in the region of
$235. [$2 per gallon]

[Is gas really that cheap at the moment ?]

Yeah, gas really is that cheap now. It just dropped below $2 for the first time since at least February 07 around my house, and we tend to be just on the high side of the national average. I'm sure you can find it for $1.70ish in some of the cheaper parts of the country.

They are so quick to put the prices up over here but when you see the barrel prices drop they are not so quick to react in reducing them. When I was over last Oct it was around a $3 gallon on average with talk of over a $4 gallon. The look of disbelief when chatting on the forecourts whilst filling up and telling them to think $10 a gallon here in the U.K was amusing. Our price has fallen slightly but has still only dropped to approx £4.60 a gallon from near £5 a gallon. :-(

I wonder how much the rising dollar vs. the pound is having on the lack of change. According to the US government, the price of gas in the UK has fallen from US$9 per gallon in July to near $5 now. But if that's true, then even with the change in dollar value you should only be paying £3.50/gallon or just under a pound/litre.

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The look of disbelief when chatting on the forecourts whilst filling up and telling them to think $10 a gallon here in the U.K was amusing.

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Are you sure the look of disbelief wasn't just from using terms like "forecourts" and "whilst?"

Here in the South of England where the cost of living is normally dearer than the national average, regular is just under the £1 per litre and premium is about £1.10 per litre. To add to the confusion our [proper ;-) ]gallon is approx 4.5 litres compared to your 3.8, so yes the true comparison is closer than I first thought. [not close enough though].

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Are you sure the look of disbelief wasn't just from using terms like "forecourts" and "whilst?"

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Along with fact that I was still calling "Gas" petrol at the time.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do!!

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Along with fact that I was still calling "Gas" petrol at the time.

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We often get folk from US here, asking for gas stations, and that is exactly where they end up. Some sell only gas (LPG).

The reason that the cost of our gas hasn't fallen as sharply as elsewhere isn't just the value of Sterling collapsing -- it is the ludicruous amount of tax that we pay per gallon. In the US it is not uncommon to see little stickers on the pump indicating what percentage of what you are paying is going to the fuel companies and what percentage is going to the goverment. If we had those in the UK I think it would open a few eyes...

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Are you sure the look of disbelief wasn't just from using terms like "forecourts" and "whilst?"
Along with fact that I was still calling "Gas" petrol at the time.

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This is a real hoot! I'm now imagining SW Dave like Alister Cooke (sp?).

Re the new tool...looks interesting but not really helpful without tweaking ability. My car isn't even listed. The only New Beetle for my model year is a diesel. Funny since diesels have always been made in such limited numbers. If I go to a different model year, I can find my car...but it estimates my MPG at 25 when I average about 31.5 on the highway. And I had two locations with no data which made my average fuel cost only $0.83/gallon. Yeah, in my dreams.

I meant to post this link earlier, but I forgot -- but it can be a very useful tool for checking your ISP's performance. The way it works, it pings routers in some of the key USA areas and then uploads and downloads a simple text file. It's sorta of fun to see the differences.

Mark

This site provides real time traffic reports for most metropolitan cities in the USA. Click on any of the cities identified and then you can drill down to current congestion points, events that could affect traffic, weather and lots of other cool bits of information.

They are experimenting with a new version of this trip planner -- check out the beta here. They offer a telephone update service and I would love some field reports from you about the efficacy of this kind of service.

Hey! You gotta check this out. One of the tools here is something called "fastest drive now" For a trial, I put in coordinates from my Las Vegas office to a field office in Pasadena, California. I know this road very, very well. Surprisingly, it didn't route the entire way along I-15 (the normal road), but instead chose to go east to US-95 and then back to I-15. Normally, this would be a glaring error -- but it turns out that due to construction work in Mountain Pass + the rain right now --I think the program is probably correct. Very Impressive!

Try it for your local drives and post your results below!

Mark

I am not sure how to use it yet -- but look at TravelSkoot.com -- but it looks like a fun way to share road trip tips with the greater mapping communities out there.

Give it a try and see what you think.

Mark

(A minute after I posted it here and on Twitter, the site went down.... weird).

We decided to more the Bellhop.com's posts into a new dedicated thread -- you can find them here.

Mark

This is very helpful.
However:
It has the incorrect MPG for my car. It's assuming the car has an automatic transmission.
I have 5 speed manual transmission. Manual Transmission cars ALWAYS get at leat 15% better gas mileage than an automatic trans. I can get about 33/34 mpg on the highway from this car.

Other things that lower a car's mpg are cruise control, air conditioning and the engine going past 3000 rpms. If I stay at 75 m/h, the engine stays at about 2750 rpms. Driving like this with no cruise or AC, I can get close to 40mpg.

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Manual Transmission cars ALWAYS get at leat 15% better gas mileage than an automatic trans.

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This used to be the case before electronically controlled transmissions with lockup torque converters. It is no longer ALWAYS true, and sometimes automatics get BETTER mileage.

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Other things that lower a car's mpg are cruise control, air conditioning and the engine going past 3000 rpms.

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A/C and high rpm's - true - as long as you can comfortably drive the car with the A/C off and the windows closed. Cruise? Only if you are very skilled and don't mind aggravating other drivers with constant speed increases and decreases - and the concentration doesn't tire you out. I have a 5 speed in my truck and ALWAYS use the cruise out on the highways. If I didn't, I would get tired a LOT quicker.

The folks from the tourism board for South Carolina have created a resource guide for attractions in South Carolina. It's pretty cool and has some good information for anyone considering travel in South Carolina this year. A part of the promotion is a scorecard-like list of special events -- including a bunch of free ones.

Mark