Distances betwteen two zip codes

This function uses Google Maps (not the API) and returns the distance between 2 addresses. It can called from VBA or as a worksheet cell function. For example with the start address in A1 and the end address in B1, in C1 enter =GMaps_Distance(A1,B1). The addresses can be any address, location, latitude and longitude coordinates, zip code, post code, etc.

Public Function GMaps_Distance(FromAddress As String, ToAddress As String) As String

    Static XML As Object
    Dim URL As String
    Dim HTMLdoc As Object
    Dim routeLI As Object

    URL = "http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=" & Escape(FromAddress) & "&daddr=" & Escape(ToAddress)
    
    If XML Is Nothing Then Set XML = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
    With XML
        .Open "GET", URL, False
        .send
        Set HTMLdoc = New HTMLDocument
        HTMLdoc.body.innerHTML = .responseText
    End With
        
    GMaps_Distance = ""
    Set routeLI = HTMLdoc.getElementById("altroute_0")
    If Not routeLI Is Nothing Then
        GMaps_Distance = Left(routeLI.innerText, InStr(routeLI.innerText, ", ") - 1)
    End If

End Function


Private Function Escape(ByVal paramValue As String) As String

    Dim i As Integer, BadChars As String

    BadChars = "<>%=&!@#$^()+{[}]|\;:'"",/?"
    For i = 1 To Len(BadChars)
        paramValue = Replace(paramValue, Mid(BadChars, i, 1), "%" & Hex(Asc(Mid(BadChars, i, 1))))
    Next
    paramValue = Replace(paramValue, " ", "+")
    Escape = paramValue

End Function