What's your commute's sinuosity?

[u/Stock_Song8239]

I recently learned about sinuosity, which measures how winding a route is compared to the straight-line distance between two points.

The formula is:

Sinuosity = Actual route distance ÷ Straight-line distance

For example, my bike commute to school is 6.8 km, while the straight-line distance is only 4.9 km.

My commute's sinuosity is 6.8 ÷ 4.9 ≈ 1.39.

I'm curious about everyone else's commutes! What's your sinuosity, and how do you commute (walking, cycling, driving, public transport, etc.)?

Bonus points if you have a particularly winding route!

[u/OnAMoose]

Awesome question and a fun way to scratch my brain this morning! I leave a city and go into the woods every day and about half the roads I'm on, local surface streets, are windy. Let's see mine:

Actual Route: 23 miles
Straight-Line Distance: 11 miles
Sinousity: 2.09

As some bonus info: Sinousity is used to measure bodies of water like rivers and creeks. Anything above 1.5 sinousity is considered "meandering."

[u/LiGuangMing1981]

My work is 3.8km from home in a straight line.

I commute by bike. In the morning I ride 14km (sinuosity 3.7) and in the afternoon I ride 20km (sinuosity 5.3).

The shortest possible route I could ride is 4.6km (sinuosity 1.2), but I really like riding so I always take routes that are considerably longer than the shortest route.

[u/af_cheddarhead]

Straight line distance: 7 miles
Commute Distance: 24 miles

Sinuosity: 3.4

Kula, Maui to Summit of Haleakala. Yes, 5 day a week commute.

[u/lordkhuzdul]

I have 1.3. 6 meters from bedroom to computer straight line, but I have to go through a doorway and turn a corner, so 8 meters total.

[u/freeski919]

1.17. Pretty direct.

[u/Sarcastic_Backpack]

How do you find the straight line distance? All of the map apps use mileage based on the actual drive.

[u/MoltoBeni → u/Sarcastic_Backpack]

Check the “measure distance” feature on google maps

[u/littleredkiwi → u/Sarcastic_Backpack]

Or try mapometre and don’t use ‘follow roads’

[u/Stock_Song8239]

mine is 1.39

[u/ctnguy]

When driving, it's 1.38, almost identical to yours. By public transport, about 1.7.

[u/Low_Champion8158]

1.16, 16 miles divided by 13.7

[u/violenthectarez]

3.18 as the crow flies, 4.12 km as a commute. 1.29

[u/arar55]

1.50. Pretty bad, and looking at a map to figure it all out, the direct route only approximates a short distance of city a street. And that street is a residential street with a shload of stop signs crossing busy streets.

I use the route of least frustration. To turn left onto a busy street, I'll go to a traffic light, otherwise, avoid them, because the lights in this town are timed horribly. I think whoever did the timing figured that they spent a lot of money on those lights, so we might as well sit and admire them. Each and every one.

So, 7 km drive, four stop signs, two of them four-way, three traffic lights.

[u/Razmyr]

If I actually commute to work rather than working remotely it is 1.35.

About 17.4 miles in a straight line and 23.5 for a commute.

[u/Severe-Kiwi-3171]

1.57 on a 30+ minute drive. Mostly because of going diagonally across a grid, only slightly because of curves in roads.

[u/msabeln]

1.24: both my house and work are close to the same state highway. But it’s an old highway, which becomes narrow and winding closer to work as it goes through a forest.

[u/SubnauticaFan3]

1.18

[u/Single_Editor_2339]

Straight line is 1.67 km, actual commute is 1.8 km for a sinuosity of 1.07.

[u/Bar_Foo]

1.12, a very straight route. 11.1 km vs 9.9 km. But if I take the beach route it's a little longer... 11.86 km.

[u/5ecr3t7]

My commute's sinuosity is 2.67 if I go by bike or car because I have to go out of my way to get to a bridge. Route 10.4 km, distance 3.9 km.

[u/ParkerScottch]

1.25. not horrble

[u/JazzlikeTradition436]

My commute to uni is50/36.6=1.366

[u/Geographizer]

Sinuosity of Kanawyers, Ca to Independence, Ca is 16.65.

[u/Mossishellagay]

1.5, the actual route is a whole 422 feet longer

[u/Adabiviak]

Actual route: 9.3 miles

Straight line: 2.5 miles

Sinuosity: 3.72

I usually drive; it's a 700' elevation gain, then a 1400' elevation drop. There is kind of a bike trail, but it's savage (I'm the only rider/maintainer, and sometimes the poison oak wins... I only hit it on occasion). Public Transit services the area, but my house is on an entirely different route than work, so taking that system would be like four hours.

I am trying to figure out how to link them (they may do custom pickups) because then I can ride to work (easier and fewer cars for the road section, which is dicey), and get dropped off way up the hill where I get maybe fourteen miles of off-road back to my house.

[u/TheThrivingest]

14km drive
9.3km actual distance
1.5 sinuosity

I barely have to turn at all. My commute is L-shaped

[u/markjohnstonmusic → u/TheThrivingest]

Time to trailblaze a hypotenuse.

[u/persilja]

Straight line 5.4 miles

Bike route 9.0 miles (1.67)

Driving route 7.5 miles (1.39)

Public transport 9.3 miles.

Another efficiency number you could calculate for public transit is: what's the time spent on the bus/train versus time spent walking to/from the stop, or waiting for a transfer. The fastest way for me to get to work by bus would take 77 minutes, or which I'd spend 50 on the bus, and 27 walking or waiting (that route is actually more meandering than the one I calculated above). Or the alternative route (maybe 13 or 14 miles in total) might take 47 minutes walking/waiting, and 30 minutes on buses and trains.

[u/Sarcastic_Backpack]

Actual drive = 4.2 miles Straight line distance = 2.4 miles Sinuosity= 1.75

My autocorrect kept trying to change sinuosity into sinusitis!

[u/charon_412]

1.59 with about 600’ elevation gain.

[u/everfixedmark_1924]

Fun question!

Straight line work to home is 11 miles. Commute is 29 for fastest route which is all freeway. 2.63 sinuosity. Ouch. Lol

[u/ParkerScottch → u/everfixedmark_1924]

This one boggles me, why wouldn't taking suburb roads be faster?

[u/Ok_Construction5119 → u/ParkerScottch]

Stop signs. Lights. Pedestrians.