Google Maps exists

[beatrice_otter]

so why. why why why. Do I so often come across fic where the author clearly a) doesn't have any idea how far apart two places are, or how to get from one to the other, and b) never thought to check google maps?

Just read a fic where one character is thinking that "it's only an 8-hour plane ride!"

and. I have driven basically between those two places.

It's a 6-hour drive unless traffic is really bad. if you hit the most congested bits exactly at rush hour, it might take you 8 hours. to drive.

Flying? Well, if you were starting at a small regional airport and needed to make a connection, it might take you four hours.

I actually mind this shit more than the big stuff. The big stuff is hard to research. Google Maps is really really quick and easy.

Comments

[redbird]

I've run into a lot of people who have a sometimes-reasonable idea of how long it takes to get from A to B by car, but not by air, or vice versa, but overestimating both smacks of carelessness.

Once in a while, it's people not knowing what they don't know--they remember it taking eight hours to get from A to B, because of frequent rest stops, or because they always made the trip on Thanksgiving weekend, with lots of travel. That feels a bit different from someone maybe thinking "those places are far apart/at the opposite end of the state/too far for a day trip" and not realizing that Connecticut is smaller than Colorado, or the like.

[beatrice_otter]

Yeah.

Although it's rarely been as bad as the episode of Stargate SG-1 where Pete says he flew from Denver to Colorado Springs.

Denver and Colorado Springs are 70 miles apart. It takes an hour to get from one to the other by car. Why would ANYONE fly?!?!?