Introduction

The mapsapi package provides an interface to the Google Maps APIs, currently four of them:

Functions mp_directions, mp_matrix and mp_geocode are used to access the Directions, Matrix and Geocode APIs, respectively. They return an xml_document object (package xml2) with the response contents.

  • Given a directions response, functions mp_get_routes and mp_get_segments can be used to process the response document into a spatial layer. Function mp_get_routes gives each alternative as a separate line, while function mp_get_segments gives each segment (that is, a portion of the route associated with specific driving instructions) as a separate line.

  • Given a distance matrix response, function mp_get_matrix can be used to obtain distance/duration matrices.

  • Given a geocode response, functions mp_get_points and mp_get_bounds can be used to obtain geocoded locations as a point or polygon (bounds) layer.

The fourth function mp_map is used to access the Maps Static API. It returns a stars raster RGB image, which can be used as background in maps.

Installation

The CRAN version can be installed with:

install.packages("mapsapi")

The development version can be installed using remotes:

install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("michaeldorman/mapsapi")

Once installed, the package can be loaded with library:

library(mapsapi)

A Google Maps APIs key is required to use the package:

key = "AIz....."

Directions

The following expression queries the Directions API for driving directions from Tel-Aviv and Haifa. Note that locations can be specified as a coordinate pair, a textual address or an sf spatial object. For example:

doc = mp_directions(
  origin = c(34.81127, 31.89277),
  destination = "Haifa",
  alternatives = TRUE,
  key = key,
  quiet = TRUE
)

Alternatively, we can use the sample response data included in the packages:

library(xml2)
doc = as_xml_document(response_directions_driving)

Given the response object, we can use mp_get_routes to create a spatial layer of route lines:

r = mp_get_routes(doc)

Here is the resulting object:

r
## Simple feature collection with 2 features and 11 fields
## Geometry type: LINESTRING
## Dimension:     XY
## Bounding box:  xmin: 34.76391 ymin: 31.87341 xmax: 35.10642 ymax: 32.79439
## Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
##     alternative_id leg_id                   summary distance_m distance_text
## 1-1              1      1 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     126121        126 km
## 2-1              2      1         Hwy 2/Kvish HaHof     122251        122 km
##     duration_s  duration_text duration_in_traffic_s duration_in_traffic_text
## 1-1       5265 1 hour 28 mins                    NA                       NA
## 2-1       5402 1 hour 30 mins                    NA                       NA
##     departure_time arrival_time                       geometry
## 1-1           <NA>         <NA> LINESTRING (34.81144 31.892...
## 2-1           <NA>         <NA> LINESTRING (34.81144 31.892...

and a visualization using leaflet:

library(leaflet)
pal = colorFactor(palette = "Dark2", domain = r$alternative_id)
leaflet() %>% 
  addProviderTiles("CartoDB.DarkMatter") %>%
  addPolylines(data = r, opacity = 1, weight = 7, color = ~pal(alternative_id))

Separate segments can be extracted from the same response using mp_get_segments:

seg = mp_get_segments(doc)

Here are the first six features of the resulting object:

head(seg)
## Simple feature collection with 6 features and 12 fields
## Geometry type: LINESTRING
## Dimension:     XY
## Bounding box:  xmin: 34.80859 ymin: 31.88656 xmax: 34.82317 ymax: 31.89256
## Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
##       alternative_id leg_id segment_id                   summary travel_mode
## 1-1-1              1      1          1 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     driving
## 1-1-2              1      1          2 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     driving
## 1-1-3              1      1          3 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     driving
## 1-1-4              1      1          4 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     driving
## 1-1-5              1      1          5 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     driving
## 1-1-6              1      1          6 Yitzhak Rabin Hwy/Route 6     driving
##                                                               instructions
## 1-1-1 Head <b>southwest</b> on <b>Bnei Moshe St</b> toward <b>Negba St</b>
## 1-1-2                                Turn <b>left</b> onto <b>Negba St</b>
## 1-1-3                    Turn <b>left</b> onto <b>Rachel Hirshenzon St</b>
## 1-1-4        Turn <b>right</b> onto <b>Herzl St</b>/<wbr/><b>Route 412</b>
## 1-1-5                            Turn <b>left</b> onto <b>Abarbanel St</b>
## 1-1-6    At the roundabout, continue straight onto <b>Derech Jerusalem</b>
##       distance_m distance_text duration_s duration_text departure_time
## 1-1-1        322        0.3 km         65         1 min           <NA>
## 1-1-2        180        0.2 km         36         1 min           <NA>
## 1-1-3        327        0.3 km         75         1 min           <NA>
## 1-1-4        548        0.5 km        108        2 mins           <NA>
## 1-1-5        503        0.5 km         83         1 min           <NA>
## 1-1-6        364        0.4 km         52         1 min           <NA>
##       arrival_time                       geometry
## 1-1-1         <NA> LINESTRING (34.81144 31.892...
## 1-1-2         <NA> LINESTRING (34.80859 31.890...
## 1-1-3         <NA> LINESTRING (34.80968 31.889...
## 1-1-4         <NA> LINESTRING (34.81257 31.891...
## 1-1-5         <NA> LINESTRING (34.81437 31.886...
## 1-1-6         <NA> LINESTRING (34.81956 31.887...

and a visualization:

pal = colorFactor(
  palette = sample(colors(), length(unique(seg$segment_id))), 
  domain = seg$segment_id
  )
leaflet(seg) %>% 
  addProviderTiles("CartoDB.DarkMatter") %>%
  addPolylines(opacity = 1, weight = 7, color = ~pal(segment_id), popup = ~instructions)

Distance Matrix

The following expression queries the Distance Matrix API to obtain a matrix of driving distance and duration between all combinations of three locations: Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva.

locations = c("Tel-Aviv", "Jerusalem", "Beer-Sheva")
doc = mp_matrix(
  origins = locations,
  destinations = locations,
  key = key,
  quiet = TRUE
)

Alternatively, we can use the sample response data included in the packages:

doc = as_xml_document(response_matrix)

The mp_get_matrix function can then be used to process the XML response into a matrix. Possible values of the matrix include:

  • distance_m—Distance, in meters
  • distance_text—Distance, textual description
  • duration_s—Duration, in seconds
  • duration_text—Duration, textual description
m = mp_get_matrix(doc, value = "distance_m")
colnames(m) = locations
rownames(m) = locations
m
##            Tel-Aviv Jerusalem Beer-Sheva
## Tel-Aviv          0     66866     108728
## Jerusalem     68524         0     118083
## Beer-Sheva   110858    106562          0

Geocode

The following expression queries the Directions API for geocoding a single address:

doc = mp_geocode(
  addresses = "Tel-Aviv",
  key = key,
  quiet = TRUE
)

Alternatively, we can use the sample response data included with the package:

doc = list("Tel-Aviv" = as_xml_document(response_geocode))

Given the response object, we can use mp_get_points to create a spatial layer of geocoded point locations:

pnt = mp_get_points(doc)
pnt
## Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 5 fields
## Geometry type: POINT
## Dimension:     XY
## Bounding box:  xmin: 34.78177 ymin: 32.0853 xmax: 34.78177 ymax: 32.0853
## Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
##   id status  address        address_google location_type
## 1  1     OK Tel-Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel   APPROXIMATE
##                        pnt
## 1 POINT (34.78177 32.0853)

Here is a visualization using leaflet:

leaflet() %>% 
  addProviderTiles("CartoDB.DarkMatter") %>%
  addCircleMarkers(data = pnt)

Or the bounds:

bounds = mp_get_bounds(doc)
bounds
## Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 4 fields
## Geometry type: POLYGON
## Dimension:     XY
## Bounding box:  xmin: 34.74252 ymin: 32.02925 xmax: 34.85198 ymax: 32.14661
## Geodetic CRS:  WGS 84
##   id status  address        address_google                       geometry
## 1  1     OK Tel-Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel POLYGON ((34.74252 32.02925...

And a visualization using leaflet:

leaflet() %>% 
  addProviderTiles("CartoDB.DarkMatter") %>%  
  addPolygons(data = bounds)

Static maps

The mp_map function can be used to access the Maps Static API to download an RGB image with a map.

Here is an example:

r = mp_map(center = "31.253205,34.791914", zoom = 14, key = key, quiet = TRUE)

Alternatively, we can use the sample response data included with the package:

r = response_map

The result is a stars raster, which can be plotted with plot:

library(stars)
plot(r)
## Loading required package: abind
## Loading required package: sf
## Linking to GEOS 3.10.2, GDAL 3.4.1, PROJ 8.2.1; sf_use_s2() is TRUE

or with ggplot2:

library(ggplot2)
cols = attr(r[[1]], "colors")
ggplot() +
  geom_stars(data = r, aes(x = x, y = y, fill = color)) +
  scale_fill_manual(values = cols, guide = FALSE) +
  coord_sf()
## Warning: The `guide` argument in `scale_*()` cannot be `FALSE`. This was deprecated in
## ggplot2 3.3.4.
## ℹ Please use "none" instead.
## This warning is displayed once every 8 hours.
## Call `lifecycle::last_lifecycle_warnings()` to see where this warning was
## generated.