BikePlanner.org

@DismalScientist 27779 wrote:

This looks like a nice tool, but it doesn’t give me the routes I expect.
I assume this is due to differences in assumptions on the speeds and relative safety of various routes.
What assumptions are being made? Is there any way to access these assumptions through OpenMaps or is this internal to BikePlanner?

In particular, BikePlanner always puts me on the Key bridge and M or the towpath going downtown rather than the TR bridge. I would think that the TR bridge is safer and probably as fast give lights. I think the towpath in that section is almost unrideable on a road bike.

A second example is that BikePlanner route someone going from Clarendon to Rosslyn by Clarendon and over on Oak to the Custis. I think that going through to Lynn would be safer than dealing with that part of the Custis. Does BikePlanner allow for changing safety and speed parameter on a very narrow segment of a route?

I just glanced at the source code for opentripplanner (what BikePlanner uses for routing) and I’m not sure I completely understood its algorithm (it’s spread out in a lot of files) but it doesn’t seem to take speed limits into account but simply has a “safety” weight applied to the distance based on whether there’s a bike path or what type of road it is (e.g. whether it’s a highway).

Unfortunately, how safe or pleasant roads are actually to bike on isn’t something you can really determine just by looking at the type of road, or sometimes even whether there’s a bike lane.

An interesting alternative approach might be to create a website that would allow users to rate segments of roads or intersections and then use these ratings to evaluate routes.

Am I the only one that would use a “Hilliest” route option?

@TwoWheelsDC 27822 wrote:

Am I the only one that would use a “Hilliest” route option?

I resemble that comment.

Definitely needs some work. It desperately wants to route me from Bob & Edith’s diner to the Birchmere by way of the Washington Blvd / I-395 ramp and Arlington Ridge Road. Is that even legal?

@TwoWheelsDC 27822 wrote:

Am I the only one that would use a “Hilliest” route option?

no

@FFX_Hinterlands 27869 wrote:

For Fairfax Co (and I imagine other places) we have a road rating as part of our bike map. Maybe that can be incorporated into the “score?”

If you could convince OpenStreetMap to allow this information to be included it would be technically trivial, but since OpenStreeMap is international it might be complicated to work out a standard for rating streets even if they liked the idea.

Alternatively, the most realistic option would be to talk to the OpenTripPlanner people and see if they would be interested in allowing some way for the people using the software to provide their own files with this information. Then it would just be matter of getting Fairfax Co to prepare such a file and getting BikePlanner to enable it.

Edit: I hadn’t realized it but the OpenTripPlanner software is actually by the people making this site. That probably means it wouldn’t be hard to get any backend changes made that were necessary to improving it. Still the site saying that they’re going to have a guide to editing OpenStreetMap suggests that they may not plan to try to make adjustments to the data from their end.

@chris_s 27855 wrote:

Definitely needs some work. It desperately wants to route me from Bob & Edith’s diner to the Birchmere by way of the Washington Blvd / I-395 ramp and Arlington Ridge Road. Is that even legal?

Actually, I think it is. Washington Boulevard and Arlington Ridge Road are both legal for riding. And while that bit is *also* an access ramp to 395, it’s not 395 (and thus not limited access highway). I’ve seen people ride that bit of Washington Blvd to Crystal City on the mornings of the Crystal Ride.

Wrong thread LOLOLOLOLOL