Interactive cyclists map thingy

[Arch]

Setting your own up "in the meanwhile" will be a waste of time, unless you do decide to port the data across to the newer service.

I'm afraid that's where I start to hear 'la la la'....

Bikehike uses google maps API - and could be implemented.


I have an idea of how I personally would do it - but I am not going to dictate or deliberate it with another site owner/developer.

1. Allow users to mark stretches of roads with a rating of say "friendliness", 1-10.
2. Take the average for the section in question to give you an overall figure (and deal with overlapping lines separately etc).
3. Allow when planning a route to "avoid roads rated less than 4" (etc) to automatically go around it, etc etc.

This is a rough idea, and is implementable - lest i'm not going to do it.

That sounds good. The one issue I can foresee is that we all have different ideas of what roads are friendly, and which rideable. For example, when I use Cyclestreets to plan a route to the office, even when I ask for fastest, it takes me along a convoluted route down side streets, when I actually use a straight forward route that happens to be a bit more main road - and I'm perfectly happy with it, although I'm on the cautious side generally. So I might rate my route as 5, when others would think of it as 1 and others as 8. There are some who'd happily ride roads I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

That's the advantage of Dell's descriptive idea - from a good description, one can assess a road on one's own terms. But that's hard to then shape into a simple rating. Swings and roundabouts, if you'll pardon the minor pun.

 

[DrSquirrel]

That is why you let multiple people rate the same section of road and then take an average.

Otherwise someone will have to be dictator of the roads or only take your own rating (which could be an OPTION) which makes it pointless.

You could also add comments to each person so you could almost just read reviews of the road - but it will get boring when 42 people have rated it an average of 5.3 and a billion comments saying "OMFG IF YOU RIDE THIS YOU DIE" and "pleasant ride all hours of the day" - whom do you listen to? (thus comments are circumstantial).

 

[Arch]

Yes, averaging would help - although knowing how you can ask 10 cyclists a question and get 15 answers, you risk every road turning out to be a 5....

 

[DrSquirrel]

Yes, averaging would help - although knowing how you can ask 10 cyclists a question and get 15 answers, you risk every road turning out to be a 5....

If 5 wimps rate it 1 and 5 pros rate it 10 - then why isn't 5 valid for an AVERAGE person

You can't please everyone, and I don't think people are going to say its perfectly fine when there are billions of pinch points and all that regardless of if they are hardcore roadies.


(this kind of discussion is exactly the reason I wouldn't want to ask a site dev to look into it)

 

[summerdays]

Whilst it is not what you are trying to achieve Bristol Streets (http://www.bristolstreets.co.uk/#tmbike/z14/mp/spfilter/y51.449380/x-2.594790) does gather information from cyclists and shows routes. It is basically as good as your contributors ... so for what ever reason the majority of pins are located in the north of the city - presumably as that is where the majority of cyclists that know about it/can be bothered/most cyclists live. Some people have shared routes on it ... you can click on the green pins to see the route, although it is most often used to mark areas where cyclists have a problem (red pins).

I love the way cyclists can share information - I made a comment on here about cycling on the shared use path at the bottom of the M32 motorway last week, and this week a cyclist told me about a different route to avoid that 200 meters. Lots of my devious routes have come about either by my explorations (some of which have involved me having to retrace my steps), or other cyclists mentioning a short cut etc that they take. Anything that would enable cyclists to share those routes would be good.

 

[snorri]

So I might rate my route as 5, when others would think of it as 1 and others as 8. There are some who'd happily ride roads I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

Arch describes the fatal flaw.

 

[DrSquirrel]

Arch describes the fatal flaw.

The flaw (you are referring to) isn't really in the rating idea - it's in the whole premise of this "map".

Averaging is a perfectly valid solution - you won't really get any better than that.

 

[rich p]

The flaw (you are referring to) isn't really in the rating idea - it's in the whole premise of this "map".

Averaging is a perfectly valid solution - you won't really get any better than that.

The Doc has a point.

You either accept an average, hope that an omnipotent being will appear and do it all, or you don't have the map at all.

 

[dellzeqq]

Arch describes the fatal flaw.

I agree with you and with Arch, not least because you and I disagree so wholeheartedly about the A9. If I were to write 'A9 - dream tarmac, fast cycling, little traffic' you might respond with 'fast cars, dangerous'. People could make their minds up on the basis of their own preferences.

And then again there's the the different time of day or day of the week thing. 'A24 Leatherhead to Dorking - fast and frighteing during the day, but a dream in the early hours of the morning' or 'A3 Cobham to junction with A31 - avoid except for Sunday mornings'.

I realised as I wrote the first post that people would be thinking in terms of phones. I wouldn't find that neccessary - I'd take a look at the map before setting off and then have the information in the back of my mind

 

[DrSquirrel]

I agree with you and with Arch, not least because you and I disagree so wholeheartedly about the A9. If I were to write 'A9 - dream tarmac, fast cycling, little traffic' you might respond with 'fast cars, dangerous'. People could make their minds up on the basis of their own preferences.

And then again there's the the different time of day or day of the week thing. 'A24 Leatherhead to Dorking - fast and frighteing during the day, but a dream in the early hours of the morning' or 'A3 Cobham to junction with A31 - avoid except for Sunday mornings'.

I realised as I wrote the first post that people would be thinking in terms of phones. I wouldn't find that neccessary - I'd take a look at the map before setting off and then have the information in the back of my mind

Averaging will work this out perfectly though.

There are only going to be a few that will think that your A9 with mental traffic whatnot is "perfect road".

And if most people ride it in the day... the average would reflect that - you can't expect the rating system to reflect your ride at 4am, unless of course for some reason most riders take that road/route at 4am.

Obviously if I am riding up some big road with loads of traffic and pinch points - I'm hardly going to rate it on JUST the road surface alone, even if I am the most confident person in the world. After all I am sure we can make general considerations for the community as a whole rather than me me me on the map all the time.

 

[dellzeqq]

Averaging will work this out perfectly though.

There are only going to be a few that will think that your A9 with mental traffic whatnot is "perfect road".

And if most people ride it in the day... the average would reflect that - you can't expect the rating system to reflect your ride at 4am, unless of course for some reason most riders take that road/route at 4am.

Obviously if I am riding up some big road with loads of traffic and pinch points - I'm hardly going to rate it on JUST the road surface alone, even if I am the most confident person in the world. After all I am sure we can make general considerations for the community as a whole rather than me me me on the map all the time.

you've illustrated precisely why it needs to be descriptive. What happens at 4 a.m. is important to me, and I don't think I'm alone. And for some people the road surface will be very important, and the speed of the traffic will be less important.

Thanks for your help on this one peeps. I'm going to dwell on it...

 

[DrSquirrel]

Descriptive won't really help much (on its own).

A bunch of text cannot be worked with in programming - numbers can.

If someone is planning a 40+ route etc, are you/they going to want to look at every section of their route that has been reviewed? (since without a rating you cannot choose to automatically avoid such roads etc).

You still have to interperate 12 people saying its semi decent, 3 saying its a death trap and 1 saying its perfect... and it takes a bunch of reading for every reviewed section to find this out.

Realistically people are not likely to review a section of the road at alien times.

You could have a better rating system - look at how say hotels are rated etc - not generally 1-5, but its 1-5 for location, friendliness, interior, etc etc.

so
1-10 Road Surface
1-10 Speed of Traffic
1-10 Obstructions
etc...

 

[theclaud]

you've illustrated precisely why it needs to be descriptive. What happens at 4 a.m. is important to me, and I don't think I'm alone. And for some people the road surface will be very important, and the speed of the traffic will be less important.

Thanks for your help on this one peeps. I'm going to dwell on it...

I couldn't agree more. It never ceases to amaze me what other people think makes good cycling terrain. I ride regularly with some experienced and otherwise sensible cyclists who take us every time on a bizarre diversion through what looks like the scene for a ransom handover deal in a movie and then announce "we'll get off here because there's always glass here (wtf?!)" and hobble 100 yards in their cleats. And all to avoid... a lovely stretch of flat, direct, smooth road that requires no skill more demanding than a bit of door-zone avoidance.

 

[DrSquirrel]

Having a descriptive/comment setup wouldn't help with what you mention though.

What stops this exact set of people posting on there "always covered in glass" etc etc when yourself says it's otherwise.

 

[jimboalee]

West Midlands.

All roads which are not an "M" something are OK for cyclists, except for Witton Lane and Trinity Road when The Villa are playing at home.