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You may have seen this meme before. It’s a Google map of the lower 48 U.S. states and a route around the country. The design was created in 2015 using data and aims to stop at significant sites, including national parks, historical sites, and other landmarks.
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The creator attempted to make the ultimate road trip, but it’s been almost a decade since it was designed… so, does it still hold true?
Dr. Randal S. Olson, a data scientist and AI researcher, created the map with Tracy Staedter, a science journalist. The two wanted to use an algorithm from Olson to compute the ultimate road trip.
According to Olson’s website, they set three rules in place:
The trip must make at least one stop in all 48 states in the contiguous U.S.
The trip would only make stops at National Natural Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Parks, or National Monuments.
The trip must be taken by car and never leave the U.S.
Olson designed the route to be an optimal amount of time. In the end, the map includes 13,699 miles of driving. Without stopping or traffic, that’s 224 hours or more than nine days behind the wheel.
“The best part is that this road trip is designed so that you can start anywhere on the route as long as you follow it from then on,” wrote Olson on his website. “You’ll hit every major area in the U.S. on this trip, and as an added bonus, you won’t spend too long driving through the endless corn fields of Nebraska.”
Olson released the map in 2015 and received a lot of press, including reviews in the Washington Post and more recently in the Daily Mail, but does the map hold up today?
When the map appears online, you see plenty of backlash or those who are upset that the route doesn’t go to their favorite city. Comments include, “They didn’t even come down to Miami? Where did they stop in Florida? Jacksonville?” and “Skipped Atlanta? Counterfeit map.” Meanwhile, others are upset with the included areas, with posts like “You can probably take San Francisco off the trip now.”
Maybe the comments are just the internet being the internet, but what do you think? Does this sound like the ultimate road trip to you? Let us know in the comments.
