mapquest for bikes?

[ant]

a while back there was some online map service (mapquest? yahoo?) that
had an option to spit out directions that avoided highways. i can't
find that option anywhere now, unless i've somehow glossed over it
repeatedly. does anyone know where it's hiding? i used to use the
mysterious site for my bike directions all the time, and now im
feeling lost.

it seems like a bike-specific version of the mapping software would be
a nice thing for bicycling.com or similar to invent. something that
would allow you to specify the maximum speed limit for your
directions, or at least options for speed or distance minimization,
and woudl tell you when you would be within 2 miles of a krispy-kreme
or a bike shop. seems like it woudl be easy enough to set up.

anthony

[Peter]

ant wrote:

> a while back there was some online map service (mapquest? yahoo?) that
> had an option to spit out directions that avoided highways. i can't
> find that option anywhere now, unless i've somehow glossed over it
> repeatedly. does anyone know where it's hiding? i used to use the
> mysterious site for my bike directions all the time, and now im
> feeling lost.

www.mapsonus.com gives you the option of "avoid major highways"
as one of the routing choices.

[Ravi]

mapquest discontinued that almost a year ago - i sent an email to the
mapquest and i got the feedback that they decided to reserve that option
for paying clients of mapquest :(

i was googling around and found this link:
http://clients.mapquest.com/ryder/mqtripplus

which does pretty much the same as it used it. i did find this to be
kind of okay only - sometimes it gives stupid directions asking to take
hwy 680 and then immediately exit - doesn't make sense - otherwise,
generally gives a pretty good route.

when i wrote to mapquest - i asked if they can provide some kind of
alternative for bike use - with features that you had mentioned - they
said they will address it... may be you can also send email to the
mapquest to do such a thing.

i think the big guys (mapquest/Micro$oft etc..) has to do such a bike
specific mapping tool - whereas the smaller guys like bicycling.com or
any others if they attempt, will be paying a lot of money to get the
basic road/geographic database from the big guys.

but again, there are usually a lot of local bike maps in the respective
towns/cities - so this usually is not that big of a problem. i would
suggest you to google around for some local maps - or post your location
here and someone from your area will be able to help you out.

+ravi


ant wrote:
> a while back there was some online map service (mapquest? yahoo?) that
> had an option to spit out directions that avoided highways. i can't
> find that option anywhere now, unless i've somehow glossed over it
> repeatedly. does anyone know where it's hiding? i used to use the
> mysterious site for my bike directions all the time, and now im
> feeling lost.
>
> it seems like a bike-specific version of the mapping software would be
> a nice thing for bicycling.com or similar to invent. something that
> would allow you to specify the maximum speed limit for your
> directions, or at least options for speed or distance minimization,
> and woudl tell you when you would be within 2 miles of a krispy-kreme
> or a bike shop. seems like it woudl be easy enough to set up.
>
> anthony

[neil0502]

ant wrote:

>> a while back there was some online map service (mapquest? yahoo?)
>> that had an option to spit out directions that avoided highways. i
>> can't find that option anywhere now, unless i've somehow glossed
>> over it repeatedly. does anyone know where it's hiding? i used to
>> use the mysterious site for my bike directions all the time, and now
>> im feeling lost.
>>
>> it seems like a bike-specific version of the mapping software would
>> be a nice thing for bicycling.com or similar to invent. something
>> that would allow you to specify the maximum speed limit for your
>> directions, or at least options for speed or distance minimization,
>> and woudl tell you when you would be within 2 miles of a krispy-kreme
>> or a bike shop. seems like it woudl be easy enough to set up.

1) Check this out: http://www.bikemetro.com/home/home.asp . If they can go
national, we've got a ball game!

2) Two miles is easily within sniffing range for a Krispy-Kreme ;-)

[Matt O'Toole]

Ravi wrote:

> i think the big guys (mapquest/Micro$oft etc..) has to do such a bike
> specific mapping tool - whereas the smaller guys like bicycling.com or
> any others if they attempt, will be paying a lot of money to get the
> basic road/geographic database from the big guys.

The problem is not paying the money, it's that useful information doesn't exist.
Whether a highway is classified as major or secondary has no bearing on whether
it's a good cycling road. Actually, some of the most dangerous cycling roads
are secondary roads that happen to be used by commuters, but on a map or in a
GIS database they look the same as quiet country roads. Also, wider, major
highways with adequate lane widths and shoulders can be quite safe. Current
databases have no information about these things, so building a bike friendly
road finder using these resources would be impossible. It's probably coming,
but not for a few years.

Bike lanes, bike trails/paths etc. may be accounted for already, but not plain
roads that are more bike friendly. How could these be distinguished, anyway?

> but again, there are usually a lot of local bike maps in the
> respective towns/cities - so this usually is not that big of a
> problem. i would suggest you to google around for some local maps -
> or post your location here and someone from your area will be able to
> help you out.

This is really the only way to go, because it's based on feedback from local
cyclists who use the roads in question.

Matt O.

[David L. Johnson]

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 17:03:35 +0000, neil0502 wrote:


> 1) Check this out: http://www.bikemetro.com/home/home.asp . If they can
> go national, we've got a ball game!

Well, don't hold your breath. They only cover a small area in Southern
California at the moment.

Used to be that Mapblast was far better than Mapquest. Unfortunately,
Microsoft took over Mapblast and basically killed it.

Something that allowed you to specify some roads to use/avoid and/or
intermediate stops would be enough to be far superior to what Mapquest
does.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Accept risk. Accept responsibility. Put a lawyer out of
_`\(,_ | business.
(_)/ (_) |

[ant]

"Matt O'Toole" > wrote in message news:<2ua6coF28p2mlU1@uni-> The problem is not paying the money, it's that useful information doesn't exist.
> Whether a highway is classified as major or secondary has no bearing on whether
> it's a good cycling road. Actually, some of the most dangerous cycling roads
> are secondary roads that happen to be used by commuters, but on a map or in a
> GIS database they look the same as quiet country roads. Also, wider, major
> highways with adequate lane widths and shoulders can be quite safe. Current
> databases have no information about these things, so building a bike friendly
> road finder using these resources would be impossible. It's probably coming,
> but not for a few years.

i envision a mapquest-style site where local bikers can pull up maps
and 'rate' roads. maybe also insert points of particular interest,
bike shops, scenic overlooks, touring campsites, etc. itd be plenty
simpler than a lot of the current web apps. i could pull up north
conway, new hampshire, and enter a rating on road quality,
scare-factor, and scenery for sections of road i know. i think
cyclists would get pretty enthusiastic about it. maybe pay a little
bit here and there with something like taht amazon.com 'honor system'.
how much do you think the licensing for the road database would be? so
many sites had it, completely redundant, that i thought it woudlnt be
that bad.

oh well, i can always dream.

[Peter]

ant wrote:

> i envision a mapquest-style site where local bikers can pull up maps
> and 'rate' roads. maybe also insert points of particular interest,
> bike shops, scenic overlooks, touring campsites, etc. itd be plenty
> simpler than a lot of the current web apps. i could pull up north
> conway, new hampshire, and enter a rating on road quality,
> scare-factor, and scenery for sections of road i know. i think
> cyclists would get pretty enthusiastic about it. maybe pay a little
> bit here and there with something like taht amazon.com 'honor system'.
> how much do you think the licensing for the road database would be? so
> many sites had it, completely redundant, that i thought it woudlnt be
> that bad.

A related possibility as more cyclists start using GPS receivers is to
have a site with the tracklogs and waypoints from favorite trips, incl.
shops, places to eat, and other points-of-interest, etc. and of course
the tracklog that shows the route followed and the elevation profile.

This site:
http://www.trailregistry.com/trailregistry/index.jsp
is along those lines but is currently geared more for hiking trails
rather than road bike rides. I've recently uploaded some of my
hiking tracklogs as well as some of the bike trails in the East Bay
area of SF to the site and found it to have quite a nice user-interface.

[maner]

Hi,
I'm developing an open-source project called CycleAtlas (
http://cycleatlas.sourceforge.net ).
It includes a map editor where you can create your custom road map.
Then you can plan your rides using the map.
Since you must create yourself your map, this can be a solution for
planning frequent rides in a limited area (i.e. near your location).

Actually it is in heavy development (a stable, but old version is also
available). Interested developers are welcomed.

Regards
Massimo



(ant) wrote in message
> it seems like a bike-specific version of the mapping software would be
> a nice thing for bicycling.com or similar to invent. something that
> would allow you to specify the maximum speed limit for your
> directions, or at least options for speed or distance minimization,
> and woudl tell you when you would be within 2 miles of a krispy-kreme
> or a bike shop. seems like it woudl be easy enough to set up.
>
> anthony

[Marty Wallace]

"ant" > wrote in message
m...
> "Matt O'Toole" > wrote in message
news:<2ua6coF28p2mlU1@uni-> The problem is not paying the money, it's that
useful information doesn't exist.
> > Whether a highway is classified as major or secondary has no bearing on
whether
> > it's a good cycling road. Actually, some of the most dangerous cycling
roads
> > are secondary roads that happen to be used by commuters, but on a map or
in a
> > GIS database they look the same as quiet country roads. Also, wider,
major
> > highways with adequate lane widths and shoulders can be quite safe.
Current
> > databases have no information about these things, so building a bike
friendly
> > road finder using these resources would be impossible. It's probably
coming,
> > but not for a few years.
>
> i envision a mapquest-style site where local bikers can pull up maps
> and 'rate' roads. maybe also insert points of particular interest,
> bike shops, scenic overlooks, touring campsites, etc. itd be plenty
> simpler than a lot of the current web apps. i could pull up north
> conway, new hampshire, and enter a rating on road quality,
> scare-factor, and scenery for sections of road i know. i think
> cyclists would get pretty enthusiastic about it. maybe pay a little
> bit here and there with something like taht amazon.com 'honor system'.
> how much do you think the licensing for the road database would be? so
> many sites had it, completely redundant, that i thought it woudlnt be
> that bad.
>
> oh well, i can always dream.

Get a sponsors logo on the website to cover costs and the world will be your
oyster.

Marty

[David Damerell]

Matt O'Toole > wrote:
>The problem is not paying the money, it's that useful information doesn't
>exist. Whether a highway is classified as major or secondary has no
>bearing on whether it's a good cycling road.

True, but gradients do, and _they_ can be deduced from existing data and
used by some cyclist-specific route planning tool.
--
David Damerell > flcl?

[Lars Lehtonen]

According to ant >:
>a while back there was some online map service (mapquest? yahoo?) that
>had an option to spit out directions that avoided highways. i can't
>find that option anywhere now, unless i've somehow glossed over it
>repeatedly. does anyone know where it's hiding? i used to use the
>mysterious site for my bike directions all the time, and now im
>feeling lost.

Mapquest doesn't have this option anymore, but map24 does.

http://www.us.map24.com/

---
Lars Lehtonen

[g.daniels]

matt O is on top of it.
and a cruncher for max downhill over a given rectanglular area a to b
no guesswrok: extra time to true the rims.
with the possibilty of no mistakes like with the online spoke calculators.

when joe and martha arrived at the cliff's base...

[David L. Johnson]

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 17:15:53 +0000, Lars Lehtonen wrote:

> According to ant >:
>>a while back there was some online map service (mapquest? yahoo?) that
>>had an option to spit out directions that avoided highways. i can't find
>>that option anywhere now, unless i've somehow glossed over it repeatedly.
>>does anyone know where it's hiding? i used to use the mysterious site for
>>my bike directions all the time, and now im feeling lost.
>
> Mapquest doesn't have this option anymore, but map24 does.
>
> http://www.us.map24.com/

Hey, this is not bad at all!. I just tried a trip that I know well, and
asking it to avoid highways and to look for the shortest, rather than
fastest, route got me essentially the route I would take on my bike.

Thanks for the tip.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | And what if you track down these men and kill them, what if you
_`\(,_ | killed all of us? From every corner of Europe, hundreds,
(_)/ (_) | thousands would rise up to take our places. Even Nazis can't
kill that fast. -- Paul Henreid (Casablanca).

[ant]

"Marty Wallace" > wrote in message news

> Get a sponsors logo on the website to cover costs and the world will be your
> oyster.

if i knew the first thing about programming i would probably give it a
go. in this case, im afraid, im all talk. (what kind of costs do we
think it would be?)

anthony

[Bill Cotton]

"Matt O'Toole" > wrote in message
...
Portion clipped
> > but again, there are usually a lot of local bike maps in the
> > respective towns/cities - so this usually is not that big of a
> > problem. i would suggest you to google around for some local maps -
> > or post your location here and someone from your area will be able to
> > help you out.
There are federal grants available for such project. The second map for
Philadelphia PA was printed recently
contact www.bicyclecoalition.org for a copy. The state of Delaware plublish
bicycle maps for the entire state
www.deldot.net/bike I have a NY region 10, Long island bikeway map, New
York has signed bikeway route
and the state is divided into regions contact www.dot.state.ny.us or
888-BIKE-NYS.
Ken Roberts and Sharon Marsh Roberts has a web site
http://www.roberts-1.com/bikehudson/
That I am in the process of emulating for the Delaware Valley. I have
rearranged my home page to group
cue sheets and maps. I have Cue for two of Pennsylvania' 6 Signed bicycle
routes, BikePA "S" route and Part
of BikePA "L" route and Delaware Bike route One.
http://www.billcotton.com/#Bicycle%20maps%20and%20cue%20sheets Links to
other cues on the web and most of the my ride .
I used DeLorme Topo maps to make mt cue sheets. I find that the choice to
aviod road and to draw in routable roads
give me route that I am happy with
> This is really the only way to go, because it's based on feedback from
local
> cyclists who use the roads in question.
> Matt O
Very true. I alway check with local club when I can
..
www.billcotton.com
N40° 3.744' W75° 6.180'