Distance on Google Maps and Strava very different
ben-----
Posts: 573
(could someone move this to Road General please? - the system just wouldn't let me post in that forum 
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I received a GPS logging device this morning, bought on eBay. Went for a short ride to test it to local library and back. Opened up a Strava account. Got .gpx file out of device, uploaded it. The route on normal Google maps that I went is 6.3 miles, but I went there and back, exactly the same route, so that's obviously 12.6 miles. On Strava, which maps it absolutely correctly, the total route is 9.3 miles. So both systems are showing visually exactly the right route. But the distances reported by them are very different. What's going on there do you reckon?
)I received a GPS logging device this morning, bought on eBay. Went for a short ride to test it to local library and back. Opened up a Strava account. Got .gpx file out of device, uploaded it. The route on normal Google maps that I went is 6.3 miles, but I went there and back, exactly the same route, so that's obviously 12.6 miles. On Strava, which maps it absolutely correctly, the total route is 9.3 miles. So both systems are showing visually exactly the right route. But the distances reported by them are very different. What's going on there do you reckon?
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Comments
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Autopause? Bad signal? Forgot to hit start?
What device did you buy?
Strava isn't showing you the distance between start and finish - it's showing you the distance the GPS recorded you as having travelled.0 -
> What device did you buy?
i-gotU GT-120
> Strava isn't showing you the distance between start and finish - it's showing you the distance the GPS recorded you as having travelled.
That's silly. The map is visually showing the full distance. How does Strava think you got from one point to another where the signal wasn't available? That renders Strava pretty useless. It doesn't quite add up either because the map that Strava is showing is spot on. The device is set to record a location point every second.0 -
A guess is that your gps device lost lock while you were cycling. Your position is recorded in the gpx file and strava overlays the data to google maps. If you loose gps lock then no data is recorded. If lock is missing for a few miles then how is strava going to know where you went? did you stop? did you put your bike in a car then restart?did you go down a different street? When you look on strava if you used the same road back then you might not be able to see the missing segment as its just a red line to the library and the same path back. If you had done a loop you would be able to see where you lost lock.0
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> Your position is recorded in the gpx file and strava overlays the data to google maps. If you loose gps lock then no data is recorded.
There are no gaps in the mapped line. The mapped line has done the right thing. (In fact as already mentioned the route is mapped pretty accurately, curved to the road I cycled along.)
> If lock is missing for a few miles then how is strava going to know where you went? did you stop? did you put your bike in a car then restart?
Well, given the fact that hyperspace is impossible, it is an absolute fact I travelled between those two points. Whether I stopped or not is irrelevant. Whether I travelled in a car or not is out of scope of the device and Strava to know so therefore irrelevant. The fact is: At some time during the gap travelling occurred, at the very least in a straight line. But Strava assumes hyperspace. And there is not a few miles of missing data. That's born out by the fact that the Strava mapped line/route accurately bends and sticks with the road.0 -
I've just counted the track points (using a computer not manually), which are occurring every second, and there is not a single one missing given the start and stop time of the recording.0
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Strava's distance is really messed up.0
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Ah, I've sussed it! It stopped short. The battery must have ran out. I hadn't charged it that much. Easier to miss as the route back was tracing over the route going. Sorry
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