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Pedestrian routing that offers pleasant alternatives to the shortest route
- silasdb 7y agoThat is what I do when I ride my bike to work. I ride a path I optimized from the shortest route to the safest and most pleasant (and still short enough). Good to see OSM can help us with that. I wish more people used and supported OSM instead of Google Maps.
- hkmurakami 7y agoLikewise. I previously added ~30% to my commute distance in order to increase route safety and route beauty :)
- scrumbledober 7y agoThe route that google maps gives me to ride my bike to work would be close to suicide. The route i take is basically parallel to it but a block away for 90% of the ride. much safer, prettier, and in total probably only about 500ft extra on a 5 mile ride.
- kylek 7y agoImmediate thought on reading the title- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_path https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePath/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePaths/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DesirePaths/
- mumblemumble 7y ago> Furthermore, many routes chosen are often potentially not very pleasant for the cyclist And how. I've found that my preferred routes don't just differ from what Google Maps might suggest, they also tend to avoid all the places that my city thought might be a good place for a posted bike lane. The bike lanes are all on noisy, busy streets that aren't pleasant to ride on, and the bike lanes themselves are often full of delivery trucks and rideshare drivers. I choose a bicycle as my primary mode of transportation specifically because I dislike all the noise and rush and stress that automobiles represent, facilitate and encourage. I've already decided to take 5 minutes longer to get where I'm going for the sake of having a more pleasant life, I can spare another 5 minutes in order to have an even more pleasant life. Worst case scenario, it still beats anything Peloton wants to sell me.
- crooked-v 7y ago> and the bike lanes themselves are often full of delivery trucks and rideshare drivers This is part of why separated bike lanes are so important.
- mumblemumble 7y agoLately I've been avoiding them, too, because pedestrians - especially kids - have a habit of stepping into them without warning. I've come to prefer non-thoroughfare streets where it's understood that bikes get to use the road, too. There, the only thing I have to worry about is rideshare drivers and Waze people thinking that blasting through residential areas at 40mph is their birthright, but, fortunately, my city has recently started getting more proactive about installing traffic-calming features into the roads, and that kind of behavior seems to be on the decline.
- edaemon 7y agoPortland does something like this. Small streets that run parallel to large thoroughfares are designated as "neighborhood greenways", and have various traffic calming measures put in place. SE Clinton is a pretty good example: https://goo.gl/maps/bnra2rsMCekcB3YA6 https://goo.gl/maps/bnra2rsMCekcB3YA6
- bkor 7y ago> Lately I've been avoiding them, too, because pedestrians - especially kids - have a habit of stepping into them without warning. Paint bicycle paths in red consistently, plus ensure there's a height difference (a step down from a pedestrian path, then another small section that's higher before you reach e.g. cars). Basically what's being done in The Netherlands. Do ignore Amsterdam experiences though, the city centre there is not a good example.
- scrumbledober 7y agothey separated the bike lane in front of my previous office on 2nd street in SF. This did not stop rideshare drivers from pulling over through the parking spaces into the bike lane, effectively completely blocking me off with parked cars on my right on several occasions. I only worked there for a few months after the separated bike lane was put in so maybe drivers are figuring it out now but it was definitely not helpful while i was riding it. In addition they painted the entire bike lane solid green, which certainly helped visibility of the bike lane (was that a problem?) but also made it incredibly slick. the stop light at the bottom of the hill had an absurd amount of 10+ foot skid marks from people trying to stop on the slick surface.
- filleokus 7y agoI think there is much potential in this area. Google Maps et. al have basically solved A->B in most cities, most of the times. Strava has helped me with answering "I'm in a new city and want to bike 1-2 hours, where should I go" with their heat maps and route planner. It would be nice if Google got their hands on the Strava data and integrated it for more casual bike-navigation. I would also love a mode which lowers the cognitive load of navigation while biking. Perhaps I could save a minute by taking a short-cut involving 10 different turns, but when in unfamiliar territory (and hence using navigation software in the first place), each turn poses some difficulty. So many times I've missed to take a turn because the audio cues have been so ever slightly off.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago>I would also love a mode which lowers the cognitive load of navigation while biking. Perhaps I could save a minute by taking a short-cut involving 10 different turns, but when in unfamiliar territory (and hence using navigation software in the first place), each turn poses some difficulty. So many times I've missed to take a turn because the audio cues have been so ever slightly off. I would love having this mode for cars as well. Sometimes to shave off a couple of minutes, maps will route along the hypotenuse of a right triangle via a lot of turns on smaller roads. I would have preferred just going along the main road and making a single turn, even if that took a few minutes longer. This is especially important at night where the road signage may have reduced visibility.
- notatoad 7y agoYeah, i think this is even more important for driving. on a bike, if i take a wrong turn it's no big deal, i'll turn around. in a car, i could be driving a while before i have an opportunity. I would pay real money for a navigation app that would tell me which route was the easiest drive.
- cortesoft 7y agoMy problem is too many left turns at stop signs... here in Los Angeles, those are basically impossible, but Waze loves to try to make you take them.
- dariusj18 7y agoI imagine you can load crime data to create routes that avoid areas with certain types of crime as well.
- francisofascii 7y agoAlso street lights which make you feel more safe.
- Lammy 7y agoMicrosoft won a patent for that in 2012: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8,090,532.PN.&OS=PN/8,090,532&RS=PN/8,090,532 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=H... And the media skewered them for it: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22microsoft%22+%22avoid+ghetto%22&ia=web https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22microsoft%22+%22avoid+ghetto%22...
- dariusj18 7y agoGoddamn patents are broke as hell.
- francisofascii 7y agoI spent considerable time looking into how this could be done well. There are numerous factors that could all be fed into an algorithm to calculate the "pleasantness" for each segment of the pedestrian network. I had focused on factors such as the distance between the traffic and the sidewalk, the speed and quantity of the traffic, and the barriers between. (curbs, trees, parked cars, etc.). Also intersections, trees, street lights, surfaces, etc. This article mentions the use of noise which is something I had not considered.
- asdfman123 7y agoSome software engineer on reddit developed trailrouter.com, which was designed for runners and does a pretty good job of finding the "scenic route." I talked with them for a bit and they set the weights so that it worked quite well from my neighborhood.
- crooked-v 7y agoI find myself wondering if there's anything like that for driving.
- macintux 7y agoThere is. I’ve found Scenic to be quite useful as a complement to my usual mapping apps when looking for interesting routes. https://scenicapp.space/ https://scenicapp.space/
- aloukissas 7y agoSame here - I mostly drive for fun (lucky enough not to have to commute), so I often choose a scenic and/or windy road to go from A=>B.
- liamwithers 7y agoGarmin have something like this inbuilt with their motorcycle satnavs: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=AUicnXyboc23l3uop2e7oA https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=AUicnXyboc23l3uop2e7oA Used it around lots of Western & Central Europe. It's great most of the time.
- yread 7y agohttps://www.motorcycleroads.com/ https://www.motorcycleroads.com/ Is somewhat related
- manwe150 7y agoThat sounds like a cool idea. Sadly, I tried it from my current (moderately rural) location and discovered the shortcomings of its knowledge of the local map. Best route is to run around the neighborhoods, but it doesn’t know that there’s a few foot paths connecting the roads making that possible. First, it suggested running along the highway (it sees the river and bike path and doesn’t realize there’s no sidewalk or walking path). Attempt 2 suggested starting out by running up the steepest hill in the area (ok, this is often unavoidable). Attempt 3 was mostly reasonable, except for the lovely jog at the end through the local manufacturer’s gated parking lot (they own both sides of aforementioned river, so the map sees water, and doesn’t realize that you’ll only see office buildings and asphalt). So the algorithm seemed to be fair, but the local map information was rather poor.
- pixelcort 7y agoIn Tokyo, when I have the choice between an above ground train or a below ground option, I tend to choose the above ground choice if I have time and it’s not too much slower. This way I can enjoy the view and avoid the subway tunnel noise. I’d love software that would factor these things in too.
- macintux 7y agoFor anyone interested in curvy driving routes, I’d recommend looking at the Scenic app: https://scenicapp.space/ https://scenicapp.space/
- OnlineGladiator 7y agoIt seems to be iOS only :(
- OkGoDoIt 7y agoIs that first tool available to use somewhere? Looks like it was just a short-lived academic research paper and not something that was actually publicly released. I would love to try it out myself! Walking is my favorite way to get to know a new city, and it not always easy to determine a good way to walk by eyeballing google maps if you’re not yet familiar with a new city.
- sideshowb 7y agofollowing
- hanniabu 7y agoOther commenters mentioned these... * Running: https://trailrouter.com/ https://trailrouter.com/ * Running/Cycling: https://www.strava.com/ https://www.strava.com/ * Motorcycles: https://scenicapp.space/ https://scenicapp.space/ * Motorcycles: https://www.motorcycleroads.com/ https://www.motorcycleroads.com/
- samcrawford 7y agoThe tool in the screenshot is https://maps.openrouteservice.org/ https://maps.openrouteservice.org/. The greenery/noise filters are available there, but only for Germany. It is indeed an academic project, but is actively developed. Disclosure: Author of trailrouter.com, which uses openrouteservice under the hood, but has its own algorithm for determining green/natural spaces to run in.
- Animats 7y agoThe Google version will route you past the retail outlets that have paid Google.
- hammock 7y agoWhen a long distance girlfriend came to visit in SF, this feature would have been really handy. Instead, her first impression was the worst of the Mission and she ended up hating the city.
- gpvos 7y agoThe Dutch https://routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/ https://routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/ (for bicycles) has had options like this for ages.
- Symbiote 7y agoYears ago, I used to use Cyclestreets for this. It only work in the UK. https://m.cyclestreets.net/journey/#67027932/balanced https://m.cyclestreets.net/journey/#67027932/balanced
- aorth 7y agoCool, reminds me to check out OpenStreetMaps again. P.S. Title should include "2012".
- karussell 7y agoWhy? It seems to be from 2019
- KickTheKidS 7y agoAs someone who lives in a very touristy city with a lot of hot spots for crime that locals know should be avoided, a navigation tool that knows how to take extra factors (like safety) into consideration when path-finding would be a real boon for the vacationers. So many times I've asked Google Maps how to get somewhere and taken a completely different route in the interest of my own safety, and there is no way for someone who is not local to know which areas to avoid.
- adriang133 7y agoSomething like this is exactly what I've been looking for. I like walking both when I visit a new city and also walk regularly every day (trying to get to those 10k steps). What I would like is something like google maps where I can say I want to walk from A to B (or back to A) but take a nice route, avoiding ugly/dangerous/crowded parts of town etc. The more configurable the better.
- Ill_ban_myself 7y agoJust want to say Google: Can we please get the option to disable left turns onto major roadways from a side street with no stop sign for the major roadway? I frequently have to reroute myself due to these “shortcuts”
- karussell 7y agoThe system is open source https://github.com/GIScience/openrouteservice https://github.com/GIScience/openrouteservice (UI at http://maps.openrouteservice.org http://maps.openrouteservice.org also shown in the screenshots) The system is based on the open source GraphHopper routing engine https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper https://github.com/graphhopper/graphhopper (UI at https://graphhopper.com/maps/ https://graphhopper.com/maps/ and integrated on https://osm.org https://osm.org) So you can easily contribute to data (https://osm.org https://osm.org) or to one of these open source engines to achieve what you prefer. Personally I have the feeling that especially for walking and cycling they are already better in many areas than Google or similar but as a co-founder of GraphHopper I might be influenced ;)
- perl4ever 7y agoWhat I want is Google Maps and the shortest routes, but constrained to only right turns, at least at intersections without lights.
- anotheryou 7y agoi use komoot (already takes in to account the type of pavement for bycicles) and adjust manually