How Waypoint Calculates Driving Routes
Learn how coordinates, highway graphs, and distance computations operate under the hood.
1
Select Departure & Arrival
Click any road or place on the map to inspect coordinates, then click 'Set as Start' or 'Set as Destination'. You can also type decimal coordinates directly into the form.
2
Calculate Road Graph
When you press 'Find route', the Open Source Routing Machine computes the fastest legal driving path taking into account one-ways, turn restrictions, and highway speed ratings.
3
Inspect Distance & Time
The road trajectory is drawn on the map. Total kilometers/miles and estimated driving duration are displayed with average travel speed.
Important Guarantees
- No straight-line shortcuts: The path strictly adheres to drivable road geometry. If points are separated by water without a bridge or ferry, an honest error is returned.
- Race condition protection: If you modify the start or destination while a calculation is running, earlier pending requests are immediately discarded so outdated results never overwrite your current selection.
- Attribution preserved: Map tiles respect OpenStreetMap cartographic contributors.