It's really a difficult programming challenge
Thanks for the post and the suggestion...
There are way too many variables to create a mapping program that would meet your criteria:
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"...then took the mileage I enter, calculate it along my route, and tell me approximately where I could be looking for a place to stop for the night...
But we'll add this to the "wish list" and see what we could do.
I never or rarely identify specific motels on a road trip. It's rare when I start a day's trip that I even know what city I'm going to be spending the night in. I usually know the region, maybe even a range of cities/towns plus/minus 50 miles. As a general rule, I use one of the national chain affinity programs -- I prefer Holiday Inn Express, because the beds are nearly always comfortable, web access works, breakfast is fine and the affinity program has a built-in discount rate structure. Other chains work the same way. There are motel chains I avoid, at all costs, and I also like staying at specialty B&B and inns. And for those special places, I do the research and book ahead but for those places it's always about the amenities -- they are almost always more expensive than the chain motel places.
Research is an important and vital part of road trip planning -- but for me the best aspect of the planning is to find those places that I might not find when I arrive on scene. I should say that in that the 17 years that I've been a professional roadtripper, I've only had two nights of bed bugs adventures... that's two more than I'd prefer... and in both examples I should have "listened" to my inner brain when I checked in. Actually, I checked into one motel -- knowing that it was a distinct possibility -- but I wanted the experience that that motel offered. It was fun -- even with the "gift" of the bed bugs.
Mark
Parts of that work RIGHT NOW
Just about every mapping program I know, including RTA's will give you a mileage number for any personally chosen route. Point A to Point B. When you save your route, it's listed in the information box underneath keywords.
If you make a Map (Route + Custom Places or the RTA Library Attractions) the mileage is displayed in bold below the map graphic.
On the Google public maps, the mileage can be viewed in a linear way, by running the cursor along the route. (I'm an expert Google map maker, and I can tell you, that this is more difficult than it sounds...)
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The 50 or 100 miles is too limiting.
Oh, you are using the Map Wizard! The Map Wizard is limited in many ways, you might try the Map Center -- which was created for custom mappers like you. There are a good deal more tools and flexibility there -- and you can create custom routes that go exactly where you want them to go!
Without getting into a technical discussion about how these maps calculate routes, we'd have to re-design the entire software application to show you where 600 miles from any given point would take you... But I agree it might be a very useful tool. I'll see what we can do.
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Then I look for nearby lodging.
We are actually going to be adding overlay tools that will allow members to choose what sorts of vendor services they want to be displayed on their maps. The first ones will be motel chains. That may be as soon as three weeks.
I should tell you that we do have a rudimentary tool that does exactly (well nearly) what you want it to do. Its the LINE DRAWN TOOL. You access it from the Map Center Page. Unfortunately, at the moment it doesn't follow roads, but you can make it bob and weave in approximatization of your planned route and by hovering your cursor over any section it will show you the linear total of mileage.
So, if you used this tool, you could figure out where 600 miles was, then use the radius tool to look for attractions within 1 to 100 miles of any spot you chose.
At this point, the programmers are trying to get the custom map printing applications working, but perhaps at some point in the next month or two, we can use the Line Drawn Tool to work on the Calculated Route program.
Mark
Some tips on using the Hand-Drawn Route
We developed the Hand-Drawn Route Tool for those instances where there are no roads that the automatic route program can follow. Mostly this was done for off-highway locations, but it will work for any road/route in North America.
To get started: Go to the Map Center Page, scroll down and look for: "Create a Hand-drawn Route" just below that is the button that reads: "Draw New Route".
Since this was written for what was intended to be short distances, scroll into the map so you can see local roads.
1. click on "Draw New Route".
2. It will prompt you to click a spot on your map. (make it where you want to start)
3. Draw the line with your cursor, clicking (which makes dots) where you want the route to bend.
4. When you reach the end of your route click "Stop Drawing Route"
To see the mileage, hover your cursor over each of the dots (you'll need to scroll in enough to see them) and the cumulative mileage will appear.
It's not fully automatic -- but it might be helpful to you.
And we'll work on adding something like this to the automatically-generated maps later.
Mark
RTA's Drag and Drop is still pending
We hope to have the RTA version of the "Drag and Drop" tool operational by mid to late May...
But, yes that would work now.
Mark
Breaking New! "Cone of Destination Possibilities"
In today's design meeting, we looked at some ways to accomplish this. Such a tool would be very helpful to the RTA Moderators as well, so.... in the near future... we'll be introducing a trip planning tool that I'm calling the "Cone of Destination Possibilities" (no -- that's not the real name...).
It will function like a "round ruler" -- that will highlight a circle or cone in a fixed radius from a given point and the map planner can use it to see what cities/locations/attractions are within a specified distance (for example 500 miles -- or one day's journey) and the map maker can then click on the visibility circle button and see approximately where 500 miles would be on the saved route. Or on any spot in North America. Exactly like using a compass, a pencil and a paper map, but it will be electronic and you can make dozens of new circles if you're thinking about changing your planned journey.
Mark
Go to Map Center -- It's Working
I've not had time to write a tutorial yet, but if you go to the Map Center, you can create circles "as the crow flies" from any point in North America in a radius from 100 to 500 miles. You can have as many overlapping circles as you want to see how far 500 miles along your route might be. It's really cool. The Moderators here are going to love this!
Mark
