Methods to measure distance to CBD?

Which method would you use?

1. Google Maps by car (so this uses the roads avaliable) and take the shortest path.
2. Transport - take the nearest train station and look it up on the distance of the railway (not exactly the most accurate since they can take a windier path)
3. Use a map tool to get a radius with a tool like Find Australian Postcodes Inside a Radius (seems like it uses the Emporium as the centre of the CBD for Melbourne - or somewhere around there.

I personally use the third method when looking at houses. This somewhat gives me a more "physical" indication of how far it actually is.

Surprised my house is actually furtherer away than I thought!

 

Didn't work for me. I did a 10km from 6000 search in Perth, which includes Kenwick. Except the nearest point of Kenwick to Perth is 13km.

Nice tool though.

I always just use 1 and if you want the shortest route, pick "Walking".

 

In Melbourne people often advertise residences as 'Zone 1' to indicate it is in the cheapest fare zone, which is also closest to the CBD.

Alternatively, (being in Melbourne) I would use the 'rings' on the Melways map (spaced at 10k, 20k etc to estimate distance.

Minutes is commonly used too e.g. '25 minutes from the CBD' (where I am, this means by train). You could use 'where is' and plot a car journey to get the distance. Or use your local train company's journey planner to see how long it would take by public transport.

 

Step 1: Take a deep breath
Step 2: Realise that 'distance to the city' is just a dick measuring contest.

All that matters is how long it takes to get to the city, not the physical distance. Travel there yourself in peak and time it

 

I am always wary of quoted time distances.

25 minutes from the CBD?
Is that by fast car at 3am on a Tuesday? Running every red light?
Or a special express train that only runs a few times a day in peak hours?
Marg

 

Either, take your pick.

 

is that not how one chooses a place to buy in another capital......using darts of course

how long it takes and how much agro involved may be a better measure

 

I Don't think you can measure it. With the amount of subdivision that has happened in melb plus apartments has put more cars on the road. Always leave 10 mins earlier yeah maybe but even when I leave at 530 its never the same. Or at night like say 8pm. Noone is on the road then

 

If it's near a train station or bus stop you can measure the travel time by checking the timetables or using the online journey planner ( see screen shot). Or you can use 'where is' or google maps etc. or sat. nav for car journeys.

The latter methods give the distance and time via driving - and in some cases walking time too.

 

Not contributing to whether it is useful but it is easy to measure point to point as the crow flies distance in Google maps.

 

It only came up as a "curiosity" thing one day because an agent was quoting once a house near Reservoir Station at "17kms" to the CBD and I thought to myself hang on a minute isnt Rezza at worst 15kms? It just didn't sound right and when I was comparing suburbs at the time like Heidelberg Heights which on the map seemed closer then Rezza towards the CBD but really isn't.
Hence I wanted to know physically how really far is it from the CBD for myself, I found the radius thing really helpful if measuring pure distance.

My parent's place is a good 5.5kms further from the CBD than my place is probably worth 1.5x more.