A method for determining how closely two geometric shapes match is disclosed. After scaling the geometric shapes to equal length, corresponding pairs of measurement locations are determined along the linearly extending geometric shapes. Tangent vectors are determined at the measurement locations and the angle made by the tangent vectors associated with each corresponding pair of measurement locations is determined. After translating one of the geometric shapes by an angle equal to the mean of all the angles at the corresponding pairs of measurement locations, the area between the geometric shapes or the maximum deviation between the geometric shapes is determined. This is an indication of how closely the geometric shapes match. This indication can be used in various applications, including vehicle positioning, sign recognition, and evaluation of geographic database accuracy.