4 ms·

Show HN: Find the fastest route via a place

19 points by FriedPickles 13y ago

Fogest 13y ago
Can't I just add the destination of a McDonalds or something to my route in Google Maps? I don't see the need for this?
- paulbaumgart 13y ago
  This gives you the McDonalds that minimizes the overall distance traveled.
  - Fogest 13y ago
    But Google Maps, especially Google Now can tell me the closest one.
    - xur17 13y ago
      True, but this is useful if you want to stop somewhere along the way somewhere. For example, I've had a few instances where I wanted to stop by a store on the way home from work. This would find the best one to stop at on the way home. Google Maps just shows me the closest one to my current location - I don't really care where it is, or when I stop at it, as long as it is on my way home.
      - Fogest 13y ago
        Ah okay, I see your point. That does make sense then!
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- 21echoes 13y ago
  while i agree that i'm going to keep using google maps for this, road.li does do something that gmaps doesn't really do: going from SF to PA, for example, there are quite a few different In-n-Out's I could stop at along the way. Google maps does not let me just say "choose which one minimizes my total travel time"-- it makes me choose one for myself, and I'd have to test all of them to figure out which one actually minimizes my total travel time.
  - erikig 13y ago
    I agree, it is nice to see all of the options along the way and road.li does it a lot nicer that Google does. I've been a road.li user for a couple of months (it was on ShowHN a little while ago) and it is one of those services that fills a very specific and useful niche.
- FriedPickles 13y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out. The redesigned Google Maps does a much better job at it--I've revised the copy to be less antagonistic. Still, the Google Maps UI does not make it easy to compare multiple alternative waypoint options (e.g. you need to click on each option to see waypoint location and trip time, doesn't show how much time is explicitly added, etc). I posted this project not only because it's a useful tool, but also to demonstrate how awesome Meteor and the Google Maps API are.
  - dm2 13y ago
    Ohhh, I see, that does seem useful. I didn't understand the multiple similar waypoints verses a fixed waypoint at first glance.
  - xur17 13y ago
    An interesting way to differentiate your site would be to allow searching for multiple waypoints in no specific order, and then have your service return the optimal route. For example, if I have three places I need to stop by (grocery, gas, and car repair shop), but I don't care which order I go to them in. Let me enter 3 addresses, and return directions for the optimal path. If you want to get even more ambitious, let me enter destinations that have multiple locations, (ex: gas, kroger, meijer, and radioshack). Select the optimal locations for each so I spend the least amount of time in the car possible. edit: It looks like your service may do part of this (destinations with multiple location choices) - the site wasn't loading for me before. Very neat!
AndrewKemendo 13y ago
I tested going from my house, to a pizza joint, to work with both your site and with google and got the same result. The only difference is that google gave me a straight forward total time, while I have to do the math on your site and its a smaller map. I think what separates your service from what google does is that it embeds the search in your route - so that I can choose between different places along the route, which is cool. I know I am always wanting to know what is the best place to stop for food along my route home that I haven't tried and it is a bit cumbersome with the way google is set up. I would make that much clearer up front in how yours is different than google because I got the same "result" after I selected the place I wanted. As it is you are focusing on telling people about the result, rather than the options along the route, which is the real service.
dbarlett 13y ago
Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6322875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6322875
- FriedPickles 13y ago
  I reposted because I've made some improvements and open sourced it since then.
nthitz 13y ago
Can it be modified to support more than one "via place"? And what if I don't really care about the order I visit each location, but just want to minimize total length?
- XaspR8d 13y ago
  It's rare that I like something both as a joke and as a real feature request.
jmzbond 13y ago
This is cool. I'd love to see via multiple places, since I'm sometimes borrowing a car for an hour and optimizing for running as many errands as I can (e.g., dry cleaners, grocery store, hardware store), and it would be great if they were all close.
lucb1e 13y ago
I was just testing OsmAnd, this fits in nicely. So I try the same route... > Roadli currently only supports trips shorter than 300 km Okay great. So basically you made something that can do less than Google Maps, TomTom and OsmAnd can? Especially if you include the option to add an N number of waypoints.

19 points by FriedPickles 13y ago

Fogest 13y ago

Can't I just add the destination of a McDonalds or something to my route in Google Maps? I don't see the need for this?

paulbaumgart 13y ago
This gives you the McDonalds that minimizes the overall distance traveled.
- Fogest 13y ago
  But Google Maps, especially Google Now can tell me the closest one.
  - xur17 13y ago
    True, but this is useful if you want to stop somewhere along the way somewhere. For example, I've had a few instances where I wanted to stop by a store on the way home from work. This would find the best one to stop at on the way home. Google Maps just shows me the closest one to my current location - I don't really care where it is, or when I stop at it, as long as it is on my way home.
    - Fogest 13y ago
      Ah okay, I see your point. That does make sense then!
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

21echoes 13y ago
while i agree that i'm going to keep using google maps for this, road.li does do something that gmaps doesn't really do: going from SF to PA, for example, there are quite a few different In-n-Out's I could stop at along the way. Google maps does not let me just say "choose which one minimizes my total travel time"-- it makes me choose one for myself, and I'd have to test all of them to figure out which one actually minimizes my total travel time.
- erikig 13y ago
  I agree, it is nice to see all of the options along the way and road.li does it a lot nicer that Google does. I've been a road.li user for a couple of months (it was on ShowHN a little while ago) and it is one of those services that fills a very specific and useful niche.
FriedPickles 13y ago
Thanks for pointing this out. The redesigned Google Maps does a much better job at it--I've revised the copy to be less antagonistic. Still, the Google Maps UI does not make it easy to compare multiple alternative waypoint options (e.g. you need to click on each option to see waypoint location and trip time, doesn't show how much time is explicitly added, etc). I posted this project not only because it's a useful tool, but also to demonstrate how awesome Meteor and the Google Maps API are.
- dm2 13y ago
  Ohhh, I see, that does seem useful. I didn't understand the multiple similar waypoints verses a fixed waypoint at first glance.
- xur17 13y ago
  An interesting way to differentiate your site would be to allow searching for multiple waypoints in no specific order, and then have your service return the optimal route. For example, if I have three places I need to stop by (grocery, gas, and car repair shop), but I don't care which order I go to them in. Let me enter 3 addresses, and return directions for the optimal path. If you want to get even more ambitious, let me enter destinations that have multiple locations, (ex: gas, kroger, meijer, and radioshack). Select the optimal locations for each so I spend the least amount of time in the car possible. edit: It looks like your service may do part of this (destinations with multiple location choices) - the site wasn't loading for me before. Very neat!

AndrewKemendo 13y ago

I tested going from my house, to a pizza joint, to work with both your site and with google and got the same result. The only difference is that google gave me a straight forward total time, while I have to do the math on your site and its a smaller map. I think what separates your service from what google does is that it embeds the search in your route - so that I can choose between different places along the route, which is cool. I know I am always wanting to know what is the best place to stop for food along my route home that I haven't tried and it is a bit cumbersome with the way google is set up. I would make that much clearer up front in how yours is different than google because I got the same "result" after I selected the place I wanted. As it is you are focusing on telling people about the result, rather than the options along the route, which is the real service.

dbarlett 13y ago

Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6322875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6322875

FriedPickles 13y ago
I reposted because I've made some improvements and open sourced it since then.

nthitz 13y ago

Can it be modified to support more than one "via place"? And what if I don't really care about the order I visit each location, but just want to minimize total length?

XaspR8d 13y ago
It's rare that I like something both as a joke and as a real feature request.

jmzbond 13y ago

This is cool. I'd love to see via multiple places, since I'm sometimes borrowing a car for an hour and optimizing for running as many errands as I can (e.g., dry cleaners, grocery store, hardware store), and it would be great if they were all close.

lucb1e 13y ago

I was just testing OsmAnd, this fits in nicely. So I try the same route... > Roadli currently only supports trips shorter than 300 km Okay great. So basically you made something that can do less than Google Maps, TomTom and OsmAnd can? Especially if you include the option to add an N number of waypoints.