A simple procedure can be implemented to select, within the [1 ≤ p ≤ 2] interval, the value of the parameter p in the distance formula that best approximates distance along a given road network. In light of the applied focus of this analysis, an empirical solution to this problem is sought for the set of 2, 138 patient-to-hospital distances. As a first step for determining the best Minkowski distance, Equation 1 is transformed into Equation 2: