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Some 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 wi

Some 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 ago
I find myself wondering if there's anything like that for driving.
- macintux 7y ago
  There 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 ago
  Same 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 ago
  Garmin 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 ago
  https://www.motorcycleroads.com/ https://www.motorcycleroads.com/ Is somewhat related
manwe150 7y ago
That 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.
- samcrawford 7y ago
  Author of trailrouter.com here. Your analysis sounds correct - I am indeed limited by the source data available, and you correctly infer that I rely on "features" available in openstreetmap (rivers, parks, etc). Nonetheless, would you mind sharing your location and I can take a look anyway? Feel free to email directly, my email is on the website.
samcrawford 7y ago
I am that software engineer! Thanks for posting here. I've been working on some significant algorithm improvements over the past couple of weeks (which have just gone live), and have a few more bugfixes to make, then I was going to post it to HN myself in due course.

crooked-v 7y ago

I find myself wondering if there's anything like that for driving.

macintux 7y ago
There 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 ago
Same 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 ago
Garmin 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 ago
https://www.motorcycleroads.com/ https://www.motorcycleroads.com/ Is somewhat related

manwe150 7y ago

That 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.

samcrawford 7y ago
Author of trailrouter.com here. Your analysis sounds correct - I am indeed limited by the source data available, and you correctly infer that I rely on "features" available in openstreetmap (rivers, parks, etc). Nonetheless, would you mind sharing your location and I can take a look anyway? Feel free to email directly, my email is on the website.

samcrawford 7y ago

I am that software engineer! Thanks for posting here. I've been working on some significant algorithm improvements over the past couple of weeks (which have just gone live), and have a few more bugfixes to make, then I was going to post it to HN myself in due course.