CommutesCalc_GoogleMapsAPI

Overview

This tool can perform various calculations relating to the driving commutes between any number of locations using the Google Maps API.

Tools

• One tool calculates commute time, distance, and fuel cost based on a starting address and one or more destinations. Results are written to a CSV file. It can project data over a week and a year based on a weekly frequency.
• A second tool is the same as the first, but compares two commute files between their overall values. You can have different starting and ending locations for either file.
• The third tool finds the central location based on a provided list of locations.

Features

• Calculate commute time, distance, and fuel cost.
• Project commute data over a week and a year.
• Compare commutes between two locations.
• Find the central location of a list of locations.
• Cached API calls for reusability.

Usage - Tools 1 and 2

1. Clear existing output results and enter new addresses in "locations1.csv" and optionally "locations2.csv" if you want to do a comparison.
2. Save your Google Maps API key in "google-maps-api-key.txt".
3. Run "main.py" to execute the tool.
4. Select option 1 or 2.
5. You can also clear the cache with option 4 if you want more recent information.
6. Optionally, make copies of CSV files for multiple scenarios and change their name as needed.

Usage - Tool 3

1. Clear existing output results and enter new addresses in "central_location.csv".
2. Save your Google Maps API key in "google-maps-api-key.txt".
3. Run "main.py" to execute the tool.
4. Select option 3.
5. You can also clear the cache with option 4 if you want more recent information.
6. Optionally, make copies of CSV files for multiple scenarios and change their name as needed.

Additional Information

• Each base location to destination calculation requires only 2 API requests.
• Inspiration taken from this video.
• Assistance provided by ChatGPT for understanding API calls.
• For a detailed example output, refer to "example_result.txt".
• In this tool all values for a round trip are just 2x the values for a one way trip. In reality it could be a slightly different commute each way.

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