Check out this terrible route!

  1. hawkskins says:

    I set it up to be a cyclist and it threw me on the freeway. I guess there are some serious bugs in this system http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5002730

  2. fathwad says:

    Did you somehow expect it to give you a great route after clicking a start and a finish point?

  3. dboisgreat says:

    It's pedometer style, so it's not going to tell you where you to go, it just gives you more data on where you've been.

  4. frantik says:

    for cyclists it just makes sure you don't go down streets the wrong way. it doesn't automatically pick the best route. you can get google maps to do that for you though

  5. hawkskins says:

    Gmaps does. Interestingly, if you say you are a runner and pull the same route, it avoids the freeway. Hmmmmmm.............

    I like the snarky reply.

  6. thejmfc says:

    Right. It's a pedometer, not a route planner. It will use whatever roads are the most direct route between your points. In this case, I'd say the bug is just the old "user error bug".

  7. jazzwalk says:

    You can switch between runner and even manual mode, as you map your cycling route. That's the workaround when the software flips out and gives me something that makes zero sense; just undo a move or two, change modes, & change back when you're getting the right result.

  8. jkamitses says:

    Sounds like the issue is here is actually an enhancement request rather than a bug.

    gmap-pedometer expects you to build a route as you choose points to connect, then it computes mileage. This particular 15 mile Seattle route was constructed using just three points, the start at Marshall Park, a leg to Frink Park, and the final destination on 1st Ave NW at NW 97th.

    The complaint here is that gmap-pedometer uses the route that Gmap produces for travel by car. With the same three points using the Gmap Bicycling Directions or Gmap Walking Directions you get two totally different routes, both avoiding I-5. Both these Gmap features are still categorized as "beta"; so the "bug" here seems more like an enhancement request to integrate gmap-pedometer with these two relatively new Gmap modes.

    You can certainly "coerce" gmap-pedometer to produce the same route as Gmap Bicycling Directions by picking intermediate points appropriately instead of choosing two points 10 miles apart in a city with 1000's of route possibilities. The gmap-pedometer route at this URL
    http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5635899
    yields the same route that Gmap renders in Bicycling Directions mode when connecting these three points:
    West Queen Anne, Seattle, WA
    Frink Park, 31st Avenue South, Seattle, WA
    Sandel Park, 1st Avenue Northwest, Seattle, WA

    The only hitch is that to get gmap-pedometer to allow a route to travel along an actual bike path, e.g. the Burke-Gilman Trail, you need to first switch to the Automatic Draw Route for Runners mode. I guess you could legitimately call this a bug (or maybe it's just runner's bias?). I noticed this same issue when trying to layout a cycling path on Cape Cod (MA) using the Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT). You must switch gmap-pedometer out of cycling and into running mode to get onto the CCRT.

    One other enhancement that seems possibly easier to implement ahead of integration with the Gmap Bicycling Directions is for gmap-pedometer to configure Gmap to always render a route using the two "Avoid Highways" and "Avoid Tolls" Gmap options. In this case Gmap creates yet another route using the three Seattle locations and that avoids I-5 (but differs markedly from the Gmap route in Bicycling Directions). Maybe exposing these two options to gmap-pedometer users to control might be relatively simple?