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Why Is Mapsource's Autorouting So Stupid?


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I'm trying to plan a bike trip from Toronto to my buddy's cottage near Midland, and I've told Mapsource that I'm on a bicycle and it keeps plotting my route on Highway 400. I've told it to prefer the minor roads and yet it still puts me on my bike on one of the deadliest stretches of road in Ontario. I'm using Mapsource 6.10 with Trip and Waypoint Manager v2 and Canada Metroguide v4.01

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I'm using Mapsource 6.10 with Trip and Waypoint Manager v2 and Canada Metroguide v4.01

I'm guessing here. I'm sure Peter will be along later to correct me if I'm wrong...

 

It could be that while newer versions of MapSource allow for a setting for bicycles, Canada Metroguide v4.01 doesn't contain the routing data necessary to distinguish between bicycle and automobile.

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A few comments: First of all, routing for bicycles will mostly keep you off limited access highways, where bicycles are not legal for the most part. (I think someone - peter? - has indicated that this is the case even for those stretches of highways where bicycles are legal). I'm not sure about preferring minor roads. Second of all, I'm not aware of any online map product with enough info to set "preferred" bicycle routes - there are so many factors going into that - width of shoulder, speed/amt. of traffic, etc. Third, if you have an idea of an alternate road you want to follow, you can set via points in Mapsource and it will follow that. This has the added benefit for autorouting GPSr's that the via points transfer to your GPS; with more via points, the Mapsource and GPSr routes will be more similar; with fewer via points, they may calculate different routes. There are some rare situations that can occur that will play havoc with routes, such as roads that are "broken" within the map data, but I'd only suspect this is a problem if routing looks wacky even with a lot of via points. Finally, I'll say that I think that Mapsource/City Select NA (which I have) does a lot better job of this than DeLorme TopoUSA - with Mapsource, once I have the route following a road, it usually sticks to it until forced to turn. With DeLorme, the software will very often try to redirect me to a parallel road that I find less acceptable for bicycling.

 

Keith

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If you can't get it done with map source,you might try an older ver. of msn streets and trips.

I tried 2006 but all it wanted to do was run me along the expressways, or freeways, or tollroads, whichever you have up there.

I reinstalled a 2001 ver.of s&t and it came out with this from Toronto to Midland. Starting on Broadview ave, to Oconner dr. to Don Mills rd, to Sheppard ave, to Twyn Rivers dr. to RR27. to RR31, to RR1.

Hope this helps if you can't get it any other way

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I agree with rickertk that for biking routes you want to include lots of via points so the program puts you on the roads you'd prefer rather than trying to optimize for shortest length/time (which may well be more hazardous or hilly). I don't have any experience with the Canadian MetroGuide, but NeoGeo's comment on not having all the routing parameters for bicycles does appear to be true for the old MetroGuide-USA v4.01. It frequently routes me on urban area interstate highways which are not bicycle legal, while my newer CitySelect-NA maps avoid those.

But even the CitySelect-NA maps do a poor job of selecting good biking routes since they fail to take into account things like traffic volumes, right lane/shoulder width, terrain, scenery, etc. They can still provide a decent starting point when planning a trip in an area with which I'm unfamiliar, but I try to get additional road information and modify the routes accordingly.

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If you can't get it done with map source,you might try an older ver. of msn streets and trips.

I tried 2006 but all it wanted to do was run me along the expressways, or freeways, or tollroads, whichever you have up there.

A trick to get S&T to keep you off the interstates is to set the average speed for limited access highways as low as possible.

 

Jamie

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On a different note. I took a trip from indiana to Oklahoma and missed a tiny corner (that included effingham, IL). No matter what I did I could not get my 60csx to route me on interstate 70 across the missing map (even though the basemap includes I70).

 

Seems sucky and I know when I was forced to eliminate maps in my gps V the routing took me across basemap roads (however, not always as expected).

 

Anyone else see this type of behavior?

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If you can't get it done with map source,you might try an older ver. of msn streets and trips.

I tried 2006 but all it wanted to do was run me along the expressways, or freeways, or tollroads, whichever you have up there.

A trick to get S&T to keep you off the interstates is to set the average speed for limited access highways as low as possible.

 

Jamie

 

LOL thanks Jamie I usually don't go that slow didn't even think about it,but now I have an older ver. of s&t

on the puter along with 2006.And there are some things on the older vers. that I wish 2006 had :rolleyes:

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LOL thanks Jamie I usually don't go that slow didn't even think about it,but now I have an older ver. of s&t

on the puter along with 2006.And there are some things on the older vers. that I wish 2006 had :rolleyes:

I guess my tip didn't go over as intended...

 

What I mean is that since the OP was looking for a way to have S&T keep him off the interstates, and that you said that the avoidance feature on 2006 isn't like earlier versions, I thought I'd offer this suggestion. If you set your average speed to the minimum on the roads you want to avoid, S&T won't send you that way, because it will invariably be quicker to send you onto the smaller roads.

 

Jamie

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