Why is road distance often more important than straight-line distance in routing?

• A. Straight-line distance is more reliable for routing.
• B. Road distance reflects actual travel path and constraints; straight-line is not navigable for routing.
• C. Road distance is always shorter than straight-line.
• D. Straight-line distance accounts for traffic.

Answer: (B)

Routing relies on the actual road network, so the distance you travel is the distance along drivable routes. This matters because the path must respect constraints like one-way streets, turn restrictions, and how roads connect; straight-line distance ignores these constraints and isn’t a navigable path. Often the straight-line distance is shorter, but there’s no direct path along that line due to rivers, terrain, or missing roads. Road distance sums up the real route you would take and tends to align with travel time better than a straight-line measure, making it the more useful measure for routing.