Bing Maps ItineraryItems Duration Includes Traffic

Question

Bing Maps ItineraryItems Duration Includes Traffic

Tom 26

I'm using the Bing Maps REST API to calculate a route. I've noticed that the duration of the itinerary items do not match the travelDuration on the top level resource field but they do match the travelDurationTraffic.

The request includes the optimize=time parameter which the documentation says "The route is calculated to minimize the time. Traffic information is not used.".

Looking through the documentation about the Route Data, I'm under the impression that the travelDuration value should correspond to the duration without traffic.

The travelDuration values for both the RouteLeg and the Route Sub-Leg fields add up to the travelDuration on the top level. The travelDuration on the itinerary items add up to the travelDurationTraffic on the top level.

Is there a parameter that needs to be set to change the itinerary item's travel duration to not include traffic?

VSawhney 880 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-25T15:15:24.75+00:00
Hello Tom,

It seems you are requesting input on "Itinerary item duration not to include traffic data" itineraryItems[].durationalways reflects traffic-influenced durations and adds up to travelDurationTraffic. This parameter optimizes the route for shortest time but does not disable traffic in the itinerary item durations.

The documentation states: “Traffic information is not used,” but this only applies to route optimization, not to the duration values returned. I think there is no documented way to instruct the API to return itineraryItems[].duration values that reflect non-traffic times. If you need per-segment durations without traffic, you can distribute the total travelDuration proportionally across segments based on their distance.

total_travel_duration = 3600 # seconds segments = [{"distance": 5.0}, {"distance": 10.0}, {"distance": 15.0}] total_distance = sum(s["distance"] for s in segments) for s in segments: s["estimated_duration"] = (s["distance"] / total_distance) * total_travel_duration

Hope this helps!
Thank you!
Tom 26 Reputation points

2025-07-28T13:07:08.37+00:00

I'm trying to get a consistent value to be returned for a trip but the travelDurationTraffic value changes each time I make a request to the REST API event though the route doesn't change.

The request I am using for this test is https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes?wp.0=-29.8819,30.9808&wp.1=-29.6035,30.3796&wp.2=-29.8819,30.9808&ra=routePath&optimize=timeWithTraffic&&dateTime=2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&key=The travelDuration value remains the same but the travelDurationTraffic never comes back with the same value. This issue also occurs when optimize=time. I have also tried times for today, in the past and in the future.

Is there to structure a request so that the traffic data value will be consistent?
Tom 26 Reputation points

2025-07-28T21:55:57.5733333+00:00

Thanks @rbrundritt

Just to be clear, if I change to a historical date like this https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes?wp.0=-29.8819,30.9808&wp.1=-29.6035,30.3796&wp.2=-29.8819,30.9808&ra=routePath&optimize=timeWithTraffic&&dateTime=2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&key= I still get different results.

I am trying to reduce the number of variables in the query which is why I'm setting the date and time. Since the route, date and time did not change, I hoped the values returned would be more consistent.

Is setting optimize=timeWithTraffic and dateTime to a date and time in the past to the best way to get more consistent results? I realise there will be differences but I'm trying to reduce them as much as possible.
Jens Hellberg 0 Reputation points

2025-07-29T07:43:10.22+00:00

@rbrundritt using Bing Maps from bing.com/maps, and specifying a date in the future, returns a consistent time with traffic. How do we achieve this using the API?

In the past, we have used the consistent travelDuration property, but this fluctuates at itinerary item level since last week. Is this a bug or is that expected behaviour?
Manas Mohanty 8,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-06T06:57:17.9233333+00:00
Hi rbrundritt

Could you also suggest most optimized way for not including traffic time.

https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes?wp.0=-29.8819,30.9808&wp.1=-29.6035,30.3796&wp.2=-29.8819,30.9808&ra=routePath&optimize=timeWithTraffic&&dateTime=2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&key=The travelDuration value remains the same but the travelDurationTraffic

Is setting optimize=timeWithTraffic and dateTime to a date and time in the past to the best way to get more consistent results? I realise there will be differences but I'm trying to reduce them as much as possible.

Thank you

1 answer

Your answer

VSawhney 880 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-07-25T15:15:24.75+00:00

Hello Tom,

It seems you are requesting input on "Itinerary item duration not to include traffic data" itineraryItems[].durationalways reflects traffic-influenced durations and adds up to travelDurationTraffic. This parameter optimizes the route for shortest time but does not disable traffic in the itinerary item durations.

The documentation states: “Traffic information is not used,” but this only applies to route optimization, not to the duration values returned. I think there is no documented way to instruct the API to return itineraryItems[].duration values that reflect non-traffic times. If you need per-segment durations without traffic, you can distribute the total travelDuration proportionally across segments based on their distance.

total_travel_duration = 3600 # seconds segments = [{"distance": 5.0}, {"distance": 10.0}, {"distance": 15.0}] total_distance = sum(s["distance"] for s in segments) for s in segments: s["estimated_duration"] = (s["distance"] / total_distance) * total_travel_duration

Hope this helps!
Thank you!
Tom 26 Reputation points

2025-07-28T13:07:08.37+00:00

I'm trying to get a consistent value to be returned for a trip but the travelDurationTraffic value changes each time I make a request to the REST API event though the route doesn't change.

The request I am using for this test is https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes?wp.0=-29.8819,30.9808&wp.1=-29.6035,30.3796&wp.2=-29.8819,30.9808&ra=routePath&optimize=timeWithTraffic&&dateTime=2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&key=The travelDuration value remains the same but the travelDurationTraffic never comes back with the same value. This issue also occurs when optimize=time. I have also tried times for today, in the past and in the future.

Is there to structure a request so that the traffic data value will be consistent?
Tom 26 Reputation points

2025-07-28T21:55:57.5733333+00:00

Thanks @rbrundritt

Just to be clear, if I change to a historical date like this https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes?wp.0=-29.8819,30.9808&wp.1=-29.6035,30.3796&wp.2=-29.8819,30.9808&ra=routePath&optimize=timeWithTraffic&&dateTime=2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&key= I still get different results.

I am trying to reduce the number of variables in the query which is why I'm setting the date and time. Since the route, date and time did not change, I hoped the values returned would be more consistent.

Is setting optimize=timeWithTraffic and dateTime to a date and time in the past to the best way to get more consistent results? I realise there will be differences but I'm trying to reduce them as much as possible.
Jens Hellberg 0 Reputation points

2025-07-29T07:43:10.22+00:00

@rbrundritt using Bing Maps from bing.com/maps, and specifying a date in the future, returns a consistent time with traffic. How do we achieve this using the API?

In the past, we have used the consistent travelDuration property, but this fluctuates at itinerary item level since last week. Is this a bug or is that expected behaviour?
Manas Mohanty 8,150 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-06T06:57:17.9233333+00:00

Hi rbrundritt

Could you also suggest most optimized way for not including traffic time.

https://dev.virtualearth.net/REST/v1/Routes?wp.0=-29.8819,30.9808&wp.1=-29.6035,30.3796&wp.2=-29.8819,30.9808&ra=routePath&optimize=timeWithTraffic&&dateTime=2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z&key=The travelDuration value remains the same but the travelDurationTraffic

Is setting optimize=timeWithTraffic and dateTime to a date and time in the past to the best way to get more consistent results? I realise there will be differences but I'm trying to reduce them as much as possible.

Thank you

Answer 1

A route calculated with timeWithTraffic will use real time traffic data for the first part of the route (~15 min) and then use predictive traffic data for the second part of the route. Traffic data is updated every minute globally in Bing and Azure Maps, so making a second call to the service could easily result in different numbers. The travelDuration property should be fairly constant as it's based on historical traffic data, while travelDurationTraffic will change relative to real time traffic changes. When you set optimize to anything other than timeWithTraffic the travelDurationTraffic value should be ignored. When you provide a future date, only predictive traffic data is used. Calculations on predictive data can vary every time a calculation is done due to how the calculations are done and the nature of the data. The calculations for routing use a genetic heuristic algorithm. These algorithms are fast and return reasonable results but might not be the 100% best result (maybe 99% best). Every time one of these calculations are done you can get a slightly different calculation. The main reason for doing the routing calculations this way is that the alternative is to brute force the calculations to determine the optimal result, and on a global scale, that could take years to calculate.

The travelDuration number is able to stay consistent as Bing/Azure Maps has an optimization that precalculated the brute force optimized solution that works with static data (e.g. no traffic data). As such, that absolute optimized path is calculated without any genetic heuristic algorithms. When traffic data is used, this optimization can't be used as we can't pre-calculate every possible combination of routes taking into consideration a metric on each road section that updates every minute. Even doing this on future predicted data would take a long time and require massive amounts of storage (Note that predictive traffic data is unique to each day and time, and not a constant value).

VSawhney 880 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-08-05T09:26:50.61+00:00

Hello Tom,

Following up to see if the above response was helpful. Please feel free to reach us if you have any further query.

Thank you!

Share via

Bing Maps ItineraryItems Duration Includes Traffic

1 answer

Your answer