基于Google Maps的城市/区域高频路线目的地数据查询（含时段筛选需求）

Hey there! Let's walk through how you can tackle getting the most common route destinations for a specific city/region using Google Maps tools, plus workarounds for time-based filtering (since you’re right—this part is definitely tricky).

First, it’s important to set expectations: Google Maps doesn’t offer a direct API endpoint that spits out pre-aggregated "most popular destinations" data for a given area. That kind of aggregated travel behavior data is tightly controlled for privacy and business reasons. So we’ll need to build this using available Google Maps Platform tools with some clever workarounds.

1. Use Places API + Routes API to Simulate & Aggregate #

This is the most programmatic approach if you’re willing to put in some legwork:

• Define your origin region: Narrow down to a specific city neighborhood or bounding box using the Places API’s nearbysearch or textsearch endpoints to get a sample of common starting points (like popular landmarks, transit hubs, or dense residential areas).
• Fetch suggested routes for each origin: For each origin point, use the Routes API’s computeRoutes method. Specify the travelMode (driving, transit, walking) that matches your use case—this will return routes that Google Maps recommends most often for that mode.
• Aggregate & rank destinations: Collect all the destination points from these suggested routes, count how often each destination appears, and sort them to find the most frequent ones.

2. Leverage Google Maps’ Built-In Insights (Non-Programmatic) #

If you don’t need a fully automated solution, you can pull manual insights directly from Google Maps:

• For a specific origin (e.g., a downtown area), check the top suggested destinations when you pull up directions—Google Maps prioritizes the most commonly requested routes here.
• Use the Places API to pull details on places with high visitor metrics (like user_ratings_total or verified business status) as proxy indicators of popular destinations in the area.

Since direct time-filtered route popularity data isn’t available, here are two ways to get close:

• Time-specific route requests: When calling the Routes API, set the departureTime parameter to a specific time (e.g., 8 AM on a weekday, 2 PM on a Saturday). The API will return routes optimized for that time (accounting for traffic, transit schedules, etc.), which aligns with common travel patterns during those windows. Aggregate results across multiple time slots to build time-segmented destination data.
• Combine with Traffic API data: Use the Google Maps Traffic API to get real-time or historical traffic data for your target area. High-traffic corridors during specific times can hint at popular routes and destinations that people are traveling to during those periods.

• API Quotas & Costs: Both Places and Routes APIs have usage limits and associated costs. Make sure to batch requests efficiently and review Google Maps Platform’s official pricing documentation to avoid unexpected bills.
• Data Accuracy: Since you’re aggregating sample data, your results will be an approximation, not a perfect representation of all travel behavior. The larger your sample of origin points, the more accurate your findings will be.
• Compliance: Ensure you’re adhering to Google’s API Terms of Service and local privacy laws (like GDPR) — avoid collecting or using any personal data without proper consent.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Eugen