System and method for accelerating route search

A method for finding an approximation to the all-pairs shortest travel path between a number of predetermined nodes, comprising clustering nodes of an original road network into a plurality of subgroups so that the number of nodes in each subgroup is no greater than a first predetermined threshold and the maximum distance between any two nodes of a subgroup is no greater than a second predetermined threshold; adding information of intra group shortest paths for all pairs in a same subgroup to a newly created higher level road network; adding information of inter group shortest paths for the plurality of subgroups to the same road network; and searching the same road network for the shortest travel path. In those cases in which the path returned is not exact, the path represents one in the original map, even if not necessarily the best one.