Mileage-Charts.com: Frequently Asked Questions

• Do your charts include all cities for each State?
• Can I copy or distribute the mileage charts?
• How recent is the mileage data?
• How many / which cities are included in the charts?
• But I only want one mileage calculation...
• Do you produce charts for other countries and regions?
• Can I order a custom chart?
• How can I create my own mileage charts?
• How can I create lots of unrelated mileages?
• Can I download all the mileage charts at once?
• Are the routes the shortest, quickest, or straight line distances?
• I have downloaded a ZIP file which does not make sense!

Do your charts include all cities for each State or Country?

No, the charts do not include all cities. The largest cities are chosen according to their population. We have to impose a limit due to the size of the resulting charts, and the processing time required to compute the charts. The pan-American chart contains the 1000 largest cities in the contiguous US and Canada. The remaining North American charts contain all cities with a population above 1000. The pan-European chart also contains the 1000 largest cities within the 24 European countries covered by our charts. Where possible, the European Country charts contain all cities with a population above 1000. However, some countries have extremely large numbers of such cities. These country charts are limited to the 1000 most populous cities.

Can I copy or distribute the mileage charts?

You may copy the mileage charts for personal use only. You may not distribute them or re-sell them. Please direct other people to Mileage-Charts.com instead.

How recent is the mileage data?

The current release of the mileage tables (Release 3) is created using 2010-era data. Typically it takes 1-2 years for a map-provider to include road changes. Therefore this data should be considered as being calculated with 2008-9 roads. This 1-2 year delay will be found with all of the free and low cost map suppliers, including Microsoft MapPoint, Bing Maps, Google Maps, and MapQuest.

How many / which cities are included in the charts?

The cities are chosen according to their population. The pan-American and pan-European charts contain the 1000 largest cities within their respective areas. Where possible, all of the remaining charts contain all cities with a population above 1000. Some of the European nations have more than 1000 such cities - these are limited to only the 1000 most populous cities. The complete lists can be found via the US, Canadian, and European indexes.

But I only want one mileage calculation...

For single calculations, use our Calculate page for one-off mileage calculations. This is intended for single calculations and excessive use will be throttled.

Do you produce charts for other countries and regions?

We only have the full (shortest/fastest, distance/travel-time) mileage charts for the US, Canada, and most of Europe. We now have a new series of International Mileage Charts which list shortest travel distances for all countries in the world.

Can I order a custom chart?

How can I create my own mileage charts?

It is not economic to create custom charts for customers. Instead, we sell the MPMileCharter tool for custom mileage chart computation. MPMileCharter is an add-in for Microsoft® MapPoint® that can calculate mileage charts between locations specified by you. These do not have to be cities - they can be anywhere on a road. The start and end locations can be different. You can also produce queries along the lines of "For each of my customers, list the three closest stores that are within 30 miles".

How can I create lots of unrelated mileages?

We also sell the MPMileage tool that calculates mileages for lists of point-to-point routes. This uses Microsoft MapPoint to determine the routes. The routes are specified in a database such as Microsoft Access.

Can I download all the mileage charts at once?

All of our "version 3" mileage charts have been grouped into two continental ZIP archives. These are available for download from our North American archive page, and European archive page. Note that these are both very large files (370MB for North American) and they will take a long time to download even on a high speed connection. Instead, we strongly recommend that you only download the individual charts that you require.

We will not be producing archives for the International Mileage Charts.

Are the routes the shortest, quickest, or straight line distances?

Each chart contains route distances and times for both the shortest and the quickest road routes. Straight line ("as the crow flies") distances are not included. Typically you are only interested in road routes when you are driving, and less interested in straight line distances.

I have downloaded a ZIP file which does not make sense!

The charts are supplied as XLSX files which can be read by Excel 2007 (and later). Internally these files are actually zipped XML files. This confuses Internet Explorer 8, which insists on changing the extension from xlsx to zip. Microsoft may issue a patch, but the problem has not been fixed as of November 2010. One solution is described here. We would also recommend the use of a different browser, eg. Firefox.