HopStop Trip Planner

[Joe Chapline]

Another tool in the trip-planning toolbox: I was forwarded an email about a month ago about a new online trip planner for the Washington, DC area: HopStop. HopStop doesn’t provide driving directions, just transit, biking and walking. I notice that the transit directions include Arlington’s ART bus system, which Google Transit doesn’t have yet. There are links to restaurants and shopping near your route, and it tells you what the cab fare should be. Free apps are available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, but I’m told the apps don’t include bike directions yet (as of a month ago), but that they’re coming.

They’re looking for feedback on the bike directions. If you have any, post it here, and I’ll pass it along or ask their rep to join the forum.

Topic

[eminva]

Hmm, just tried entering the appropriate addresses for my commute from Vienna, VA to DC, and it didn’t seem to be aware of the W&OD or Custis Trails — it routed me on surface streets all the way.

I tried my work address and the address of a bike shop a couple of miles away, but for which there are about a dozen ways to go, and it came up with a route that is probably the best option.

One downside is that it did not tell you how far you have to go on each street.

Liz

[paulg]

I put in my regular bike commute which takes me from 4mile run to MVT to Wilson Bridge but the directions actually had me not only missing all the trails in the area but it wanted me to ride in the HOV lane of I-395. I guess being on two wheels I’m allowed in HOV? Just like motorcycles right? :o)

Seems like a nice tool but maybe a little work to do on the bike directions.

[vvill]

Yeah it’s not too accurate. It seems like it ignores bike paths. It had me on Lee Hwy to Lynn St and Key Bridge, never on the Custis.

[hencio]

My directions home we accurate, but just not as smart as google maps are. Route was the shortest, most direct route, but didn’t take into account hills I like to avoid or avoiding close contact with cars. Prior to google bike directions, it took me 2 months to come up with my best route. When google bike directions came out, it was exactly my route with the exception of a 1/8 mile stretch of road.

[americancyclo]

definitely needs work.

[Joe Chapline]

I’ll email Hop Stop that there’s some feedback here.

[CCrew]

Google sucked at first for bike directions. From what friends there have told me getting accurate GIS data for MUP’s was a nitemare.

[Alex HopStop]

Hi everyone, I’m Alex, the Community Manager for HopStop.

Thanks so much for trying out our biking directions and for the feedback! I’ve forwarded this thread to the rest of our team so we can look into the issues you’ve pointed out. If there are any specific addresses that our system had trouble finding, or weird routes please feel free to send details to me at alex@hopstop.com so we can take a closer look.

Thanks again! I’ll follow up when I have more news on my end, but if you have any more feedback keep posting it here. Very much appreciated

@hencio 8822 wrote:

My directions home we accurate, but just not as smart as google maps are. Route was the shortest, most direct route, but didn’t take into account hills I like to avoid or avoiding close contact with cars.

You’re right, our system doesn’t take hills into account just yet but we do aim to provide the most direct route.

@eminva 8812 wrote:

One downside is that it did not tell you how far you have to go on each street.

Good suggestion, thanks Liz!

@paulg 8815 wrote:

I put in my regular bike commute which takes me from 4mile run to MVT to Wilson Bridge but the directions actually had me not only missing all the trails in the area but it wanted me to ride in the HOV lane of I-395. I guess being on two wheels I’m allowed in HOV? Just like motorcycles right? :o)

So sorry about that! Would you mind sending your start and ending addresses to me at alex@hopstop.com? We should be prioritizing trails but it looks like we need to update our info for Washington DC. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

@vvill 8819 wrote:

Yeah it’s not too accurate. It seems like it ignores bike paths. It had me on Lee Hwy to Lynn St and Key Bridge, never on the Custis.

Sorry for that! We’ll check our data to see why we’re not including Custis in our biking routes. Thanks!

[StopMeansStop]

Mmmmmmmm IHOP

[dasgeh]

Yeah, hop stop routed me along 50 and I66 to get from Lyon Park to Foggy Bottom. Looks like it’s missing the trail along 50, the fact that bikes aren’t allowed on hwys (and bikes on 50 are a bad idea), and the fact that you can bike through the base and cemetery.

Thanks

[Alex HopStop]

Hey everyone, we’re looking into our biking directions to make sure that we don’t serve any routes along highways. Obviously we don’t want to give you biking directions that are illegal and unsafe and we apologize again for the routes that included highways.

We’re also working on getting better map data that includes all of the bike paths that you’ve noted were missing.

Thanks again for your feedback, it’s been really helpful!

[Author]

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