As great as Waze and Google Maps are for dynamic routing and responsive path-finding, I am using rental scooters now, and at this point I really need to design some bicycle routes with intention and purpose, and Maps simply refuses to save any "dragged" or "pinned" route in any meaningful way, and I suppose this is deliberate, because A.I. knows best, kids!

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wlesieutre a day ago | parent | next [-]

Even for driving the major apps are crappy about routes. I was on Foothills Parkway a while ago and wanted to keep Apple Maps running just as a "miles/time remaining" indicator. It can't do anything other than fastest route, with the option to ignore highways.

So unless you set a waypoint halfway between every single entry/exit, it will want to get off the parkway and take US 321 instead.

You can manually set up the route using a bunch of waypoints, but then it tells you the distance/time to next stop (which are arbitrary map points) instead of the distance to the end of the parkway, and you can't save the route so you'd better not touch it or want to look at anything else on the map once you have it set up.

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motoroco 15 hours ago | parent [-]

I had the same issue planning roadtrips where the journey is the destination. I’ve paid for apps like InRoute despite poor UX, inability to access my routes from desktop, and zero collaboration support

I got increasingly frustrated looking for a replacement that I made https://plotalong.app in my spare time so that my wife and I could plan and save our motorcycle trips together. We still have to add the occasional “via” waypoint but it’s leagues better than Google maps at sticking to the scenic route

I need to update the marketing site and get new users into the map faster, but if you want a quick way in here’s an actual trip I took last year and spruced up to serve as a demo https://plotalong.app/maps/5c735b43-cb84-5a7b-8976-2d4e0c383...

New features and improvements come out regularly so if you have any suggestions send me a message

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wlesieutre 14 hours ago | parent [-]

Very cool! That solves creating and saving a route with extra navigation waypoints, so the other thing I'd want out of it is a native app with CarPlay where I can get total time/distance remaining, time/distance to next stop, and the option to pick which waypoints count as "stops" (versus just being there to control the route). I see there's a GPX export but I'm sure that won't handle the waypoints how I want it to. Guessing native apps are out of scope though?

If you're ever near the Smokies, here's a loop from Knoxville through Foothills Parkway (west section), Tail of the Dragon, and Cherohala Skyway, with a detour up to Maple Springs Overlook (site of a popular annual hill climb).

https://plotalong.app/maps/b53f3c01-4e3c-4b52-a560-4a3259e08...

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motoroco 13 hours ago | parent [-]

thanks for trying it out! I actually happen to have a trip planned for next month in Shenandoah and Blue Ridge Pkwy, looks like that loop is a little out of reach for us this trip but I want to go back to hit Tail of the Dragon and others

I will make a native iOS app, but probably only after this summer roadtrip season passes. as far as CarPlay goes, I'll have to find a way to test that first (all my cars/bikes have "dumb" head units). I have the site added to my homescreen on my iPhone and it works for me at least, same thing on desktop I installed the PWA with Chrome and have it in my dock

you're right that other providers don't understand through-waypoints. it's more problematic for groups than individuals, but I haven't wanted to take on live navigation yet because it's so hard to do right and to do real world testing. I could just trust Mapbox to be good enough with their Directions API, but then I'm not adding that much value and so I'm still going with planning/collaborating as my primary focus and encouraging folks to export to google/apple maps or their GPS for now. thanks for all the suggestions!

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wlesieutre 11 hours ago | parent [-]

CarPlay support can run in the simulator, obviously you'll need to fake the GPS location too for this to be useful. And you need to get special permission from Apple before you can even use the simulator, they keep CarPlay even more locked down than everything else.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/carplay/using-the-...

Between the three roads on my map I'd have to recommend Cherohala Skyway as my favorite drive. Only done it once, but it's a beautiful fun road with great scenic overlooks. Longer and more relaxing than Tail of the Dragon, and I'd rate it more enjoyable if not as exciting.

That's a car-based opinion though, can't speak to motorcycles.

https://www.visitmonroetn.com/cherohala-skyway

EDIT - a couple questions on pricing:

1) If I do one month on the paid plan to create a route, then cancel the subscription, do I still keep the route I made? Can I share and export, but no edits? Or can I still edit existing waypoints, but not add new ones? Realistically this is something I'd only use once or twice a year so I want to understand how the subscription structure fits with that.

2) How do collaborators work? I'm guessing only the route creator need a paid account, and other people can join it from free ones, but it would be helpful to clarify.

When you're working on the iOS app let me know if you need a beta tester!

	▲	motoroco 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		thanks for the tips about CarPlay development. I'll definitely target parity with the web app at first so hopefully it'll be something I can get access to eventually regarding (1), yes, you keep the routes you made even after your subscription ends. the limits revert to the free tier so if it had more waypoints or was longer than that then you just can't add or move waypoints. removing waypoints to get back down below the limit works and you still export your trip to formats included in your tier (e.g. google/apple/waze) you could absolutely pay for a month just to plan and export all your trips for the year, bookmarking them with google maps or saving the files for your GPS for instance -- not a problem. I am currently exploring alternatives to monthly & annual subscription schedules to further support seasonal usage, too per your 2nd question, that's correct, only the creator needs to pay to have 2+ collaborators. you can try it out on the free tier with 1 person at first to see if it works for you. if you just want to share maps publicly you can do that without subscribing, too

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spaqin a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That was incredibly frustrating when I had some driving restrictions on a learner's license - not every road was available for me and after planning it all out in detail, I realized there's no way for me to move it over to my phone.

Similarly, on a motorbike I'd choose some particular roads for more fun, but that also requires committing the route to memory.

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himata4113 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Anything other than cars I believe google maps/waze is nearly unuseable for navigation, yah. I think they even removed "bike" pathing too. Public transport is pretty alright, but very inaccurate vs local app when they use the same data and routing is lacking intelligence sometimes.