--- title: Man Plans Most Efficient Road Trip to See All U.S. Capitols description: Randy Olson mapped out a super-efficient — and super-ambitious — way to see the contiguous United States using algorithms and Google Maps. canonical: https://time.com/4726391/efficient-us-road-trip-capitols/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-06T16:59:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:14.156Z og:title: This Man Planned the Most Efficient Road Trip Across the U.S. og:description: It involved algorithms and Google Maps og:url: https://time.com/4726391/efficient-us-road-trip-capitols/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte82d605dd34d2fae/6988b9c00b72e37f326ec999/gettyimages-158329781.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Google Maps Returns To Apple's iPhone og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Man Planned the Most Efficient Road Trip Across the U.S. twitter:description: It involved algorithms and Google Maps twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte82d605dd34d2fae/6988b9c00b72e37f326ec999/gettyimages-158329781.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Man Planned the Most Efficient Road Trip Across the U.S. > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=4803cf9e-cd8c-4080-a043-0569cec28f5c&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Jordi Lippe-McGraw / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Jordi Lippe-McGraw / Travel + Leisure Apr 6, 2017 4:59 PM UTC  The Google Maps app is seen on an Apple iPhone 4S on December 13, 2012 in Fairfax, California. The Google Maps app is seen on an Apple iPhone 4S on December 13, 2012 in Fairfax, California. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images by [Jordi Lippe-McGraw / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Jordi Lippe-McGraw / Travel + Leisure Apr 6, 2017 4:59 PM UTC Hitting the open road and driving into the sunset is a romantic notion, but most of us need a little planning before [road trip](http://www.travelandleisure.com/slideshows/americas-best-road-trips). Do you go north? Do you go south? Do you take a week? Do you take a month? What are the best stops to make? And there are a million more questions to be asked. Randy Olson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, mapped out a super-efficient — and super-ambitious — way to see the contiguous United States. He devised his cross-country road trip, combining algorithms and Google Maps, so he could visit 48 capitol buildings. “For this road trip, there is one goal: to take a picture at as many U.S. state capitols as possible,” Olson wrote on his blog. “We will travel only by car, so that rules out Alaska (too far away) and Hawaii (requires a plane flight) and leaves us with the 48 contiguous states (excluding [D.C.](http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/washington-dc/things-to-do)).” “Whenever possible, we will avoid routes that require us to travel through foreign countries, as entering/leaving the country requires a passport and border control tends to slow things down.” To start, he found the “true” distance between all of the capitols by car, and then the shortest route by road between every capitol, amounting to 2,256 directions. He did a lot more math — [you can read that here](http://www.randalolson.com/2016/06/05/computing-optimal-road-trips-on-a-limited-budget/) — before determining his final itinerary.  Randy Olson The algorithm “reached an optimized solution that makes a complete trip to all of the U.S. state capitols in only 13,310 miles (21,420 km) of driving,” he wrote. That came out to visiting those 48 U.S. state capitols in 8.5 days. “The best part is that this road trip is designed so that you can start anywhere on the route,” he noted. “As long as you follow the route from wherever you start, you’ll hit every state capitol in the 48 contiguous U.S. states.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/road-trips/epic-road-trip-capitols) _originally appeared on_ [_TravelandLeisure.com_](http://www.travelandleisure.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4726391/efficient-us-road-trip-capitols/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4726391/efficient-us-road-trip-capitols/"},"headline":"This Man Planned the Most Efficient Road Trip Across the U.S.","datePublished":"2017-04-06T16:59:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:42:14.156Z","description":"It involved algorithms and Google Maps","url":"https://time.com/4726391/efficient-us-road-trip-capitols/","keywords":["Living","Travel","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte82d605dd34d2fae/6988b9c00b72e37f326ec999/gettyimages-158329781.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jordi Lippe-McGraw / Travel + Leisure"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte82d605dd34d2fae/6988b9c00b72e37f326ec999/gettyimages-158329781.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google Maps Returns To Apple's iPhone","caption":"Google Maps Returns To Apple's iPhone","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4726391/efficient-us-road-trip-capitols/","name":"This Man Planned the Most Efficient Road Trip Across the U.S."}}]}] ```