Calculating Distances

In earlier versions of Tripline, we had a simple mechanism to calculate total distance for a trip. Basically it measured geodesic distance (straight line across a sphere) between all the points and added it all up. That works fine for trips that only have straight lines, but it was inaccurate for trips that followed driving, bicycling, walking and custom routes. So, in our latest release (April 19, 2025) we rebuilt the mechanism to measure true distance for each segment. It’s much more accurate, and we also display travel distance and estimated duration for each segment as well.

How it looks now

Here’s how we display distances on trips. It’s similar in the mobile app.

And here’s how it looks in the editor where you can choose travel mode

How it works

When you add places to a trip, we have an algorithm that automatically chooses the likely travel mode between two points based on distance. If it’s a short distance (under 1km), the system chooses WALKING. If it’s under 500km, the system chooses DRIVING. Otherwise it sets a geodesic path (straight line across a sphere) which is like a flight path. You can then click the line to select the travel mode you want for any line. If our directions service can’t find a route between the points, we reset to a geodesic path (for example if you choose DRIVING for a line between New York and London).

The method used to calculate distance and duration differs by travel mode.

Travel ModeDistanceDurationNotes
FLYING
(Default)
Geodesic distance between pointsNoneWe thought about estimating duration, but there’s no accurate way to do it.
DRIVINGDetailed route distance provided by directions serviceEstimated typical duration provided by directions service
TRANSITDetailed route distance provided by directions serviceEstimated typical duration provided by directions service
BICYCLINGDetailed route distance provided by directions serviceEstimated typical duration provided by directions service
WALKINGDetailed route distance provided by directions serviceEstimated typical duration provided by directions service
CUSTOM PATHSum of geodesic distance between each pointNone

We then add up all of the segment distances to calculate the total trip distance. Also, you’ll notice that we display distances in both Miles and Kilometers. We know that many of you are on the metric system, but we felt that it’s better to always have both.

Can you add/edit duration manually?

Durations cannot be added or edited manually at the moment.

What about past trips?

If you have a trip that was created before April 19, 2025, the distance was calculated using the old method, and is likely inaccurate if you have driving/walking/custom paths. If you’d like to update it to have more accurate distances, here’s what you can do:

  1. Go to the trip page
  2. Click [ Edit Map ] to open the editor
  3. Click each line and select the appropriate travel mode (even if it’s already selected). This will recalculate the distance for that segment.
  4. After you’re done, click [ Save & Exit ]
  5. You’ll now see distances for each segment and a more accurate total distance

We know this is a manual process that could take some time, so we apologize for that. We didn’t feel comfortable running a script to automatically edit people’s maps in the background. We don’t like doing that sort of thing because we want everything you create on Tripline to be under your control as much as possible, and as much as automated processes can help speed things up, there’s always the risk that something goes wrong.

If you have any further questions, please contact support@tripline.net

Can I reorder my photos?

Yes, this feature was fixed in our April 19, 2025 release. You can easily drag and drop images within a waypoint or between waypoints in your trip. Once you’ve uploaded your pictures to a waypoint simply drag and drop any photo to a new position.

Watch the video below to see it in action.

Updates are saved instantly. Note that you drag images and drop to the left of an existing image. That means if you want to change the first image, drag and drop a different image to the left of the first image.

Why am I seeing a Show Map button on Tripline maps?

Over the past year, both of our mapping providers (first Google Maps and more recently MapBox) have dramatically raised their prices. In the case of Google Maps, they raised their prices 12X, making it impossible for us to continue using their service. So, we switched to MapBox in the fall of 2018. Initially, the service was affordable, but in December 2019, MapBox doubled their prices, and as a result, we’ve had to implement the “Show Map” functionality more broadly to reduce our costs.

We do have the ability to remove the preview functionality for some of our partners and users who support us on Patreon, so if you’d like to use Tripline without previews, please support us on Patreon.

How do I embed a map in a WordPress blog?

Embedding a Tripline map  in a WordPress blog is as easy as embedding a YouTube video…in fact, it’s the exact same process.

If you have a WordPress blog that you host yourself

  1. Go to the trip page on the Tripline site
  2. Select the Share Trip option in the [ OPTIONS ] button dropdown
  3. Copy the player embed code
  4. Go to your WordPress blog
  5. Create a new post
  6. Add an HTML block
  7. Paste the embed code into the block
  8. Publish your post!

Here’s an example of how it looks:

If you have a free blog hosted on wordpress.com

WordPress has recently disabled the ability to embed IFRAME objects (like the Tripline player) on free blogs hosted on wordpress.com.  If that’s the type of blog you’re using, your best option is to embed a thumbnail image for your map that will point people to the Tripline site.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Go to the trip page on the Tripline site
  2. Select the Share Trip option in the [ OPTIONS ] button dropdown
  3. Copy the code from the “Thumbnail” field
  4. Go to your WordPress blog
  5. Create or edit a post
  6. Add an HTML block
  7. Paste the thumbnail code into the block
  8. Publish your post!
  9. NOTE: If you want to control the image width, just add style="max-width:300px;" or something similar to the surrounding div

Here’s an example of how it looks:

Please contact us if you have any difficulty: support@tripline.net