Overview
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2002 is an all-in-one mapping solution that delivers a comprehensive array of maps, points of interest, routes, driving directions and Pocket PC compatibility in one value-priced software package. It's the one product that instantly meets your mapping and travel needs without waiting for an Internet connection.

Features

• Find the Address or Place Easily pinpoint exact customer or business address on the map by simply entering an address or location. Full address searching available for over 6 million miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada. Locate over 2.0 million place names around the world.
• Custom Pushpins Over 250 general symbols are included to personalize your maps.
• Snap-Routing Move a route to wherever you want it by simply dragging the highlighted route to the preferred location. Provides unparalleled flexibility in planning and changing routes, adding vias, stopovers or detours to their routes
• Measuring Tool Identify the distance between locations by simply drawing the route.
• Global Positioning System Support Know exactly where you are at every turn. Simply plug a GPS receiver to your laptop running Streets & Trips and find your exact location anywhere in the US or Canada.
• Microsoft Pocket Streets 2002 Easily create and download maps to your Windows CE 2.0 or later palm-sized or hand-held PC to take on the road with you.

Using Streets & Trips
I toyed with the interface at first, getting used to the options and such, by planning a trip across the United States. Most of the features were intuitive and easy to use. In a matter of minutes, I had a complete trip planned for traveling from California to Florida, including stops, schedule by day, and gas consumption.

To fully test the software, I used Streets & Trips to plan a trip I was taking in a few weeks: Santa Clara, CA to Sequoia National Park. The software allows you to segment your trip if there are specific places you want to stop along the way, or if there just happens to be a specific road you prefer to travel. There's also a real-time check it performs (if you are connected to the internet) to determine all the roadwork that is in progress that involves your trip. That is a great feature. I adjusted the schedule such that I wanted to be at the park by 3:00 pm, and it determined what time I would need to leave in the morning to meet that demand. I went into the options for gas consumption to adjust the price per gallon and set the gas mileage of my SUV (which, unfortunately, is far less than the default value). Finally, I scheduled two stops along the way specifying 2 hours between stops. The results were a detailed set of driving directions, showing exact times for turns, road changes, and scheduled stops, as well as a detailed map showing the path I would be taking. The software was smart enough to schedule the stops at actual turn-offs nearest to the 2 hour schedule. In other words, instead of instructing me to pull over on the freeway in the middle of nowhere at exactly 2 hours, it schedule me to take a turnoff at a point that was close to 2 hours.

The big test, of course, is matching the directions with the real life experience of taking the trip. Following the driving directions, I was amazed to find that the schedule nearly matched the actual turns, stops and arrival perfectly. The first scheduled stop was a turnoff that provided a gas station. I don't know if the software knew that or not. The software can highlight hotels and restaurants, but there was no option to depict where gas stations were. On a long trip, gas stations can certainly be more crucial. In any case, I didn't need gas on the first stop; we only stopped to eat. I broke from the schedule on the second stop because it was a gas stop, and I preferred to hunt down the cheapest gas station I could find. Upon arriving to Sequoia National Park, I was surprised to find that it was exactly 3:00 pm, the very time I was scheduled to arrive.

Summary
Streets & Trips is a great piece of software for planning road trips. It's very intuitive to use, and provides amazingly accurate results, both in trip schedules and detailed overview maps. It includes lots of useful options, such as gas mileage, schedule stops, and real-time road construction checks. It creates map files that can be shared with other PC users; unfortunately, you won't be able to share these maps with your Macintosh friends, as there is no Mac version. The customized pushpins features is nice, as well as seeing all the hotels and restaurants in any area (gas stations, however, are not shown). I highly recommend Streets & Trips for any PC user who likes to take road trips.

Pros:

• Accurate trip schedules and maps
• Provides real-time road construction updates
• Displays hotels and restaurants in a given area
• Estimates gas costs

Cons:

• Does not display gas stations
• Output map files cannot be shared with Mac users
• Not yet a Macintosh version of Streets & Trips
• Not much in terms of documentation

Overall Rating:

4 out of 5 Mice