A straight-line distance can be wildly misleading once you add roads, bridges and one-ways. Here's why the difference matters for delivery planning.
"As the crow flies" is a fine phrase for crows. For a delivery van boxed in by rivers, one-way streets and limited bridge crossings, the straight-line distance between two points can understate the real trip by a wide margin.
Where the gap gets big
The gap between straight-line and road distance grows fastest around water crossings, industrial zones with restricted access, and rural areas where the nearest road connection loops well out of the direct line. Two addresses that measure a mile apart on a map can be five minutes' worth of extra driving in practice.
Use straight-line distance for the right thing
Straight-line distance is still useful — for a quick service-radius check or a rough zone assignment — just not as a stand-in for actual drive time or route cost, which is where it gets planners into trouble.
Building distance into planning decisions
- Use road-network distance for anything tied to time or fuel cost: route assignment, delivery windows, driver pay.
- Reserve straight-line distance for coarse decisions like which depot should generally cover which area.
- Re-check key routes after road work or new bridge closures — the gap between the two measures can shift overnight.
FieldCalc measures both, so planners can tell at a glance where straight-line distance is close enough and where it isn't.
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