A simple Python script for planning optimal road trip routes between cities with basic path optimization.

• Static City Map: Pre-configured network of major US cities
• Dual Optimization Modes:
  • Shortest distance (km)
  • Fastest time (hours)
• Dijkstra's Algorithm: Efficient pathfinding for optimal routes
• Interactive CLI: User-friendly command-line interface
• Visual Route Display: Clear step-by-step route visualization

python road_trip_planner.py

🚗 ROAD TRIP ROUTE PLANNER 🗺️
Available cities:
  Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte
  Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland
  ...

Enter starting city: New York
Enter destination city: Chicago

Optimization options:
  1. Shortest distance
  2. Fastest time
Choose option (1/2): 1

============================================================
Route (DISTANCE optimized):
  1. New York
     ↓
  2. Philadelphia
     ↓
  3. Pittsburgh
     ↓
  4. Cleveland
     ↓
  5. Detroit
     ↓
  6. Chicago

Total distance: 985.0 km
============================================================

1. City Network: The script uses a static graph where cities are nodes and routes are weighted edges
2. Dijkstra's Algorithm: Finds the optimal path based on selected criteria (distance or time)
3. Priority Queue: Uses heapq for efficient path exploration
4. Path Reconstruction: Tracks the complete route from start to destination

• Python 3.6 or higher
• No external dependencies (uses only Python standard library)

• Static map with pre-defined cities (21 major US cities)
• Simplified distance and time calculations
• No real-time traffic data
• Limited to connected cities in the network

• Add more cities and routes
• Support for waypoints/multiple stops
• Export routes to file
• Integration with mapping APIs
• Fuel cost calculations

Created for issue #617 - 100 Lines of Python Code Project

Open source - feel free to modify and enhance!