7 ms·

Forget the Shortest Route Across a City – New Algorithm Finds the Most Beautiful

78 points by ot 12y ago

thejteam 12y ago
So is this the politically correct version of the "avoid ghetto" function that people joke about? In all seriousness though, it is pretty cool use of data mining and crowdsourcing.
- GigabyteCoin 12y ago
  I could have used a feature like that when my GPS told me to cut through the Chicago suburbs to avoid highway traffic on my trip across the U.S. last summer. I was nearly scared to death.
  - scrapcode 12y ago
    My first trip to California I flew into John Wayne and stayed in LA for a couple of months. On the way back to John Wayne in OC I attempted to avoid traffic. The app took me straight through a pretty bad part of Compton. That was a fun experience.
    - percentcer 12y ago
      Compton's the new Brooklyn, haven't you heard
- LaikaF 12y ago
  Wouldn't that be pretty easy to do with a crime map for an area? Just add an option to avoid high crime areas.
  - pc86 12y ago
    That's what the "avoid ghetto" function is, which really exists (and has for some time).
    - peterwwillis 12y ago
      ....where is this option? That kind of thing is invaluable in cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Philly, etc
- WiseWeasel 12y ago
  I say we start taking lots of pictures in the ghetto, just to screw with them. Who's with me?
ryanthejuggler 12y ago
This is pretty neat; I'd definitely use an app that did this. Not really a "new algorithm" as they say, though; when you boil it down it's really just A* and MTurk. However, it's a really cool application, and what use is science without its applications?
- vernie 12y ago
  "Why the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached."
- kelnos 12y ago
  Yeah, I had a similar reaction. The only novel thing I can think of here is the idea of using publicly-available photos on Flickr etc. to try to automatically rank the beauty of parts of the city, to avoid having to crowd source the data. Otherwise, yeah, it's just assigning weights to different street/path segments based on perceived beauty rather than some other metric (like amount of traffic).
jobu 12y ago
Can someone please make a "low-stress routing algorithm"!? Most days I honestly wouldn't care if a route took me 50-100% longer to travel if avoided traffic backups and stop lights. Call it "sane route" or "road rage free routing", but as long as I'm moving in traffic I have a much lower level of stress when I arrive at my destination.
- samstave 12y ago
  This is why I prefer to bike everywhere from home to work. *Edit - Rain stresses my bike ride (I find biking stress free, compared to driving in SF... don't know why that was downvoted.)
- Terr_ 12y ago
  IMO "keeping up the speed" isn't quite the same as low-stress. For example, I'd rather go a little slower overall if it meant avoiding unprotected lefts that feel risky or stressful.
- ambler0 12y ago
  Exactly what I was thinking. Hipmunk does something like this for minimizing the pain of flying, which I always thought was a great idea.
- superuser2 12y ago
  There is no "feature" more infuriating or inappropriately named than "traffic calming" by means of timing the lights so that you have to stop every single block. It almost makes me want to drive as dangerously as possible just to spite the policy people who thought that was a good idea.
- bazzargh 12y ago
  This exists - for bikes. For a few years now, Cyclestreets have been offering 'fast' vs 'quiet' routing (quiet being the stress-free option on a bike) http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/ http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/ It tries, but often it will warn you that some parts of the route have to take in busy roads. They do it as an API (http://www.cyclestreets.net/api/ http://www.cyclestreets.net/api/), it's used in a number of apps and sites, and most of it is open source (https://github.com/cyclestreets https://github.com/cyclestreets). I'm sure you could similarly construct stress-free driving routes, you just need a metric and the data?
Perceval 12y ago
Seeing that route map gave me a pang of nostalgia, since it was the route I walked every day for a year when I was studying at the LSE—back and forth from the Southwark dorm (across the street from the Tate Modern) across the Millennium Bridge or Blackfriar's Bridge, either down Fleet Street or Inner/Middle Temple, and then to the Aldwych. Really beautiful views of the Thames every day—Houses of Parliament and the Eye of London in one direction, Tower Bridge in the other direction.
eyeareque 12y ago
Very cool idea! Couldn't you do the same thing without crowdsourcing the opinions of what the most beautiful route by simply using exif data on troves of say, flickr images? I assume that you could tell which routes are more beautiful or interesting by the sheer number of images that are taken at specific locations.
- iamdanfox 12y ago
  I imagine they introduced sentiment analysis/crowdsourced beauty opinions to filter out 'negative' photos, e.g. some highly-photographed traffic accident, or a frequently photographed homeless spot
PeterWhittaker 12y ago
Very cool. Unless I am in a terrible rush from Ottawa's west end to points downtown or east, I will often take the river route. It's a bit longer, but ever so much nicer. And if I am anywhere near Colonel By and it makes sense, I'll take it. Beautiful drives soothe the nerves.
iopq 12y ago
It always takes you through the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone no matter where you start and end. "What? You said MOST beautiful, not shortest!"
dredmorbius 12y ago
Reminds me of a cross-country (US) trip I made some years back. Having just passed through Mt. Rushmore (home of the National Memorial Parking Scam), I asked for suggestions on routes further east. I was immediately guided to the most direct route. I interrupted, pointing out that I'd started in southern California, was headed to Virginia, and was more interested in the scenic route. I then got pointed on some amazingly beautiful roads through the Black Hills and skirting the Pine Ridge reservation, with an Indian pow-wow on the radio, and, after sunset, a lightning storm playing out on the horizon in my rear view mirror. Spectacular. I've been known to take the scenic route through town (or between towns) as well, particularly to avoid both traffic and ugliness.

78 points by ot 12y ago

So is this the politically correct version of the "avoid ghetto" function that people joke about? In all seriousness though, it is pretty cool use of data mining and crowdsourcing.

GigabyteCoin 12y ago
I could have used a feature like that when my GPS told me to cut through the Chicago suburbs to avoid highway traffic on my trip across the U.S. last summer. I was nearly scared to death.
- scrapcode 12y ago
  My first trip to California I flew into John Wayne and stayed in LA for a couple of months. On the way back to John Wayne in OC I attempted to avoid traffic. The app took me straight through a pretty bad part of Compton. That was a fun experience.
  - percentcer 12y ago
    Compton's the new Brooklyn, haven't you heard
LaikaF 12y ago
Wouldn't that be pretty easy to do with a crime map for an area? Just add an option to avoid high crime areas.
- pc86 12y ago
  That's what the "avoid ghetto" function is, which really exists (and has for some time).
  - peterwwillis 12y ago
    ....where is this option? That kind of thing is invaluable in cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Philly, etc
WiseWeasel 12y ago
I say we start taking lots of pictures in the ghetto, just to screw with them. Who's with me?

ryanthejuggler 12y ago

This is pretty neat; I'd definitely use an app that did this. Not really a "new algorithm" as they say, though; when you boil it down it's really just A* and MTurk. However, it's a really cool application, and what use is science without its applications?

vernie 12y ago
"Why the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached."
kelnos 12y ago
Yeah, I had a similar reaction. The only novel thing I can think of here is the idea of using publicly-available photos on Flickr etc. to try to automatically rank the beauty of parts of the city, to avoid having to crowd source the data. Otherwise, yeah, it's just assigning weights to different street/path segments based on perceived beauty rather than some other metric (like amount of traffic).

jobu 12y ago

Can someone please make a "low-stress routing algorithm"!? Most days I honestly wouldn't care if a route took me 50-100% longer to travel if avoided traffic backups and stop lights. Call it "sane route" or "road rage free routing", but as long as I'm moving in traffic I have a much lower level of stress when I arrive at my destination.

samstave 12y ago
This is why I prefer to bike everywhere from home to work. *Edit - Rain stresses my bike ride (I find biking stress free, compared to driving in SF... don't know why that was downvoted.)
Terr_ 12y ago
IMO "keeping up the speed" isn't quite the same as low-stress. For example, I'd rather go a little slower overall if it meant avoiding unprotected lefts that feel risky or stressful.
ambler0 12y ago
Exactly what I was thinking. Hipmunk does something like this for minimizing the pain of flying, which I always thought was a great idea.
superuser2 12y ago
There is no "feature" more infuriating or inappropriately named than "traffic calming" by means of timing the lights so that you have to stop every single block. It almost makes me want to drive as dangerously as possible just to spite the policy people who thought that was a good idea.
bazzargh 12y ago
This exists - for bikes. For a few years now, Cyclestreets have been offering 'fast' vs 'quiet' routing (quiet being the stress-free option on a bike) http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/ http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/ It tries, but often it will warn you that some parts of the route have to take in busy roads. They do it as an API (http://www.cyclestreets.net/api/ http://www.cyclestreets.net/api/), it's used in a number of apps and sites, and most of it is open source (https://github.com/cyclestreets https://github.com/cyclestreets). I'm sure you could similarly construct stress-free driving routes, you just need a metric and the data?

Perceval 12y ago

Seeing that route map gave me a pang of nostalgia, since it was the route I walked every day for a year when I was studying at the LSE—back and forth from the Southwark dorm (across the street from the Tate Modern) across the Millennium Bridge or Blackfriar's Bridge, either down Fleet Street or Inner/Middle Temple, and then to the Aldwych. Really beautiful views of the Thames every day—Houses of Parliament and the Eye of London in one direction, Tower Bridge in the other direction.

eyeareque 12y ago

Very cool idea! Couldn't you do the same thing without crowdsourcing the opinions of what the most beautiful route by simply using exif data on troves of say, flickr images? I assume that you could tell which routes are more beautiful or interesting by the sheer number of images that are taken at specific locations.

iamdanfox 12y ago
I imagine they introduced sentiment analysis/crowdsourced beauty opinions to filter out 'negative' photos, e.g. some highly-photographed traffic accident, or a frequently photographed homeless spot

PeterWhittaker 12y ago

Very cool. Unless I am in a terrible rush from Ottawa's west end to points downtown or east, I will often take the river route. It's a bit longer, but ever so much nicer. And if I am anywhere near Colonel By and it makes sense, I'll take it. Beautiful drives soothe the nerves.

iopq 12y ago

It always takes you through the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone no matter where you start and end. "What? You said MOST beautiful, not shortest!"

dredmorbius 12y ago

Reminds me of a cross-country (US) trip I made some years back. Having just passed through Mt. Rushmore (home of the National Memorial Parking Scam), I asked for suggestions on routes further east. I was immediately guided to the most direct route. I interrupted, pointing out that I'd started in southern California, was headed to Virginia, and was more interested in the scenic route. I then got pointed on some amazingly beautiful roads through the Black Hills and skirting the Pine Ridge reservation, with an Indian pow-wow on the radio, and, after sunset, a lightning storm playing out on the horizon in my rear view mirror. Spectacular. I've been known to take the scenic route through town (or between towns) as well, particularly to avoid both traffic and ugliness.