I was wondering if anyone was aware of, or had considered developing, a way of crowd sourcing route finding (like using Get Directions on Google Maps). I'm thinking in particular of local journeys where there might be lots of different potential routes where as there's only a few reasonable routes to get from say Birmingham to Manchester.
I'm moving house next week and was checking what routes Google Maps suggests from where I'll be moving to to places I frequently need to go. Basically I was checking if there was a better route than the one I already know (it's the area I grew up in and where my sister already lives), I found that the routes I already know tended to be a lot shorter and quicker. That got me thinking that it would be good if there was a mechanism by which I could tell Google that actually there was a better route and hence the idea of a route finder site which crowd sources the routes. Essentially what I'm thinking is a site which initially applies a similar process to Google Maps and similar sites. Users, if they know a better route, can enter that route (maybe draw it on a map or even use a FourSquare style app to walk/drive/bus/train the route and check in at major turning points/changes (e.g. when they get on or off a bus or train). This could also be used to add timing information to the route (maybe according to the time table it's supposed to take the bus 30 minutes to do a journey but actually it tends to take 45, maybe a distance that would normally take 10 minutes to walk takes 20 because it involves crossing busy roads &c). The software would then break the journey into logical lengths (when they leave/join a major road, reach a landmark (such as a train station, city centre, shopping centre, hospital, major junction &c), get on or off a train or get on or off a bus or pass through a stage boundary). When someone requests a route the software would stitch together these lengths to find the shortest journey. Possible or pipe dream? Stephen -- It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption. http://stephensorablog.blogspot.com/ | http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenboothuk | Skype: stephenbooth_uk Apparently I'm a "Eierlegende Woll-Milch-Sau", I think it was meant as a compliment. _______________________________________________ developers-public mailing list [email protected] https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/listinfo/developers-public Unsubscribe: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/mailman/options/developers-public/archive%40mail-archive.com
