# Open Route Service Directions returns unrealistic travel duration (inflated travel time for car profile)
**URL:** https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641
**Category:** directions
**Created:** [March 10, 2023, 4:25pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641 "2023-03-10T16:25:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gib\_mac](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/gib_mac)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 4:25pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641/1 "2023-03-10T16:25:34Z")
I am building a simple tool to query the **distance and travel time** between to points using the car profile ORS API . Am able to successfully get both but the **travel duration always seems too much inflated**. For Example the travel time from Irving, Texas to Laredo,Texas is over 11hrs in ORS compared to just over 6hrs in Google Maps. What could be the issue. I tested the same issue in the API playground and with diffrent locations to make sure its not an error in my local configuration but duration still seems way too off.
What could be the issue?
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### Author:  [@Stefan](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/Stefan)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 4:54pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641/2 "2023-03-10T16:54:59Z")
What’s your exact request? I’m getting 07:01hr duration for that trip ( 736.5 km, avg speed 104.86 Kmh).
I suspect you chose shortest route, that gets me 10:32 hrs. Try recommended.
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### Author:  [@gib\_mac](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/gib_mac)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641/3 "2023-03-10T18:40:40Z")
Thank you for your reply… in deed the problem was the **preference** parameter i had set to **shortest** , setting to recommended seems ok. I had wrongfully assumed that the shortest route would be the faster.
One more thing, does ORS put in to consideration the current traffic situations when calculating a route in directions API?
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### Author:  [@Stefan](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/Stefan)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2023, 8:10am UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641/4 "2023-03-11T08:10:59Z")
Shortest route will take you straight through the middle of towns and cities for example, where the highway going around that town or city would be much faster if you’re just passing through. So in miles such a route would be (much) longer, but in actual travel time much faster - because you’re not limited by traffic lights, city speed limits, etc. Shortest refers to mileage in this case, not travel time.
No, ORS does not take traffic into account, and it is only aware of roadworks for example if you explicitly tell it to, or of the roadworks are so long lasting that the local OSM Mapper added it, and [is added to OSM long enough ago that ORS starts to see it](https://giscience.github.io/openrouteservice/Frequently-Asked-Questions.html#when-does-the-osm-data-update-in-the-openrouteservice). Changes in OSM are not replicated in ORS straight away. See the [documentation](https://giscience.github.io/openrouteservice/documentation/travel-speeds/Travel-Speeds.html) about travel speeds for more info.
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### Author:  [@jschnell](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/u/jschnell)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2023, 8:19am UTC](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/open-route-service-directions-returns-unrealistic-travel-duration-inflated-travel-time-for-car-profile/4641/5 "2023-11-09T08:19:44Z")
2 posts were split to a new topic: [`Preference` not available for matrix endpoint](https://ask.openrouteservice.org/t/preference-not-available-for-matrix-endpoint/5457)