IainD wrote:Had a quick look. not sure what is different to other map sites for route creation?
There are few things:
1 - Ability to create the route using the familier Google Maps interface and then export it directly onto your Garmin, TomTom or NavMan without having to faff about with any 3rd party middle-man software.
2 - Ever growing routes library, complete with a simple up/down voting system - meaning you can opt to see only the top 20 highest rated routes (at that time), or the whole lot.
3 - Tracing Paper - This one's really cool. Here's a scenario - you need to get from say, Carlisle to Edinburgh. You can punch in your start and end points, and then bend/drag/manipulate the route however you like - same as Google, nothing new there. However, you can also click on the Layers tab, then view a series of routes (our own Classic/Iconics, top user routes or ALL user routes), and you can simply click and add as many of these to your existing route as you like. It's a bit like laying a sheet of tracing paper over an actual map, with everyone elses favourite biking roads highlighted - you simple trace your way from A to B, with as many interesting looking wiggly bits as you like in between.
I've made it sound much more complicated than it actually is, but try it out and I'm sure it'll make more sense!
IainD wrote:A couple of things would be really useful (don't take this as a crit just some thoughts)
Not at all - ALL feedback very much welcomed and encouraged, thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think.
IainD wrote:User weighted options 1 to 10 for say:
Shortest - Fastest
Type of Road (not just avoid motorways / tolls but be able to pick small back roads lanes etc.)
We've sort of nailed this with the Upvote/Downvotes system and route descriptions I think.
Trying to define the 'perfect' biking road is just too subjective and impossible a task - we've surveyed hundreds of different riders over the last year while we've been working on this, and we've yet to come up with an infallible set of results.
What someone riding a Harley describes as perfect (stereotypically long straight roads) is very different to what a sportsbike rider wants (fast, sweeping bends) compared to you guys on an adventure bike who don't mind a bit of gravel if the scenery's good. Hence, we've come up with this:
When creating & saving your routes, you have a series of grading options that help describe & define it for others, namely:
The type(s) of bike you think it's suitable for: (Sports/Tourers/Cruisers/Adventures) -&- a set of sliders to help describe it, being:
Straight <-----> Twisty
Urban <-----> Rural
Low Traffic <-----> Busy Traffic
From here, you can get a feel for each particular road/route based on how it's been described, and you can decide whether it sounds like fun (to you) or not. And, you can of course add it to your own route with a single click.
It'll always pick the shortest/fastest route by default when you do a standard A to B type route (same as Google).
IainD wrote:Pick your own average speed(s) to inform the time calculation.
Totally - that'd be a really handy tool, especially for planning Iron Butt rides etc. Noted, as with all these things I've no idea how feasible any of it actually is, but we do take everything back to the developers and add what's possible.
IainD wrote:Databases look interesting, will be back for a proper poke around soon.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks very much! The routes databases are very much a self perpetuating entity - the more peoplle start using them and saving/sharing routes, the better a resource it'll be for the biking community as a whole.
If you spot or think of anything else you reckon we should look at or add, please do drop me a note - we're very much all ears.
Cheers & all the best,
James @ MotoGoLoco