Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with route

Interstate 95 After a Blizzard

Elsie — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:32:09 -0800

What is the earliest best day to travel Interstate 95 from New Haven, CT to SC after blizzard? So, yeah, we were supposed to be in southern NJ by now en route to SC. Bagged that due to blizzard conditions along our exact route. Those of you who live along 95 and are familiar with the aftermath and clean-up of snowstorms, when should we set out? Tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, or later? We want to arrive by Christmas Eve, if possible, but only if conditions are clear and safe. (We had originally planned to do the trip over two days, with an overnight in Fredricksburg, VA. Is that even feasible after a cleanup?) Any advice--best internet weather sites to keep checking? Local Mefi advice is more appreciated since we don't know how well the interstate gets cleaned up after huge winter storms in NJ, PA, MD, NC.

Pseudo-geeks, Google Maps, bus routes and the quest for happiness.

eytanb — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:56:24 -0800

How complicated is it to create a bus map on the Google Maps API? So I saw this Google Maps mashup with NYC subways and I was wondering how hard it would be for a someone with decent geek-fu to figure out how to do it. I know that any self-respecting geek would just tuck down and tinker but I am a little stressed for time.

I am a little familiar with Javascript, PHP and MySql (more in terms of adapting then writing) and am willing to learn. I just need to know that this is not going to be a time sink. I can spend my commute throwing the actual bus routes into a KML map (is that what it is called? My knowledge in this field is limited at best.)

So what I ask of you, oh Giant Seething Meta-Brain, is what are the main steps I need to take for this? What will this require of me? How long would this take someone who is relatively proficient? What about someone with the coding skills of a drunk duck?

Places to see, people to go... wait... is that right?

Nice Guy Mike — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:03:13 -0800

RoadTripFilter (again): D/FW to Southern MD. Anything unmissable inbetween? I'll be moving up to southern Maryland from north Texas in a couple of weeks' time, and I was wondering if the collective had any "must see" places or good (fun and/or scenic) roads they could recommend?

I have some flexibility in routing and timing, and am considering anywhere between 3-6 days on the road.

I'll be driving alone in a pretty reliable car, so fun roads (with those "curve" things in them that you don't find in Texas) and scenic drive suggestions are welcome.

Perfecting a Brooklyn/Manhattan bike route

mhz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:24:00 -0800

BrooklynBikeRouteFilter: Please help me map the best route to/from Brooklyn/Manhattan by bike. I'm trying to start riding to/from work every day. My route starts at Eastern Parkway and Rogers in Brooklyn, and ends at Broadway and Astor Place in Manhattan.

Ridethecity is giving me directions which I'm not entirely comfortable with [I've never ridden on, and so want to avoid, the Williamsburg Bridge,] so I'm looking for a better route. It seems to prefer the Williamsburg Bridge over the Manhattan Bridge because of the routes in Manhattan, but NYC Bike Maps seems to have a more updated version which includes Lafayette and Chrystie Streets with bike lanes.

So once in Manhattan it seems like Chrystie>Grand>Lafayette>Astor would work.

But what about in Brooklyn? I used to ride Flatbush Avenue… I'm not crazy about that. Neither Ridethecity nor NYC Bike Maps show Washington Avenue as having a bike lane, but I'm fairly certain it does. If so, then the most direct route would seem to be Eastern Pkwy>Washington>Bergen, but then what? (I can also get onto Bergen from Bedford if I'm wrong about Washington Ave.) From Bergen Street, what's the best route to the Manhattan bridge?

As for the way back…

Ridethecity tells me to go down to Grand>Chrystie>Canal to the bridge. Is Broadway better of worse than Mercer to get down to Grand? Is there a a better route altogether?

And once I'm back in Brooklyn, what's the best route to get back to Eastern Parkway? Is it Jay>Myrtle>Washington/Bergen?

Thanks!

LA to SF not on the PCH

kmtiszen — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:50:02 -0800

Los Angeles to San Francisco: Help me find an alternate route! This coming August, I'm going to be driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I've done the trip before via the PCH and absolutely loved it, but I'm wondering if there are any amazing alternate routes. Maybe a dessert adventure? I should have at least a few days, so time really isn't a concern.

Any bizarre/interesting/beautiful sites along the way get you bonus points!

Thanks!

How to plot a bike route using a Google-like interface

holdenjordahl — Sat, 02 May 2009 06:36:52 -0800

Does anyone know of a Google Maps equivalent for bicycle route-finding in the greater Los Angeles area? You type in starting and ends points, and it gives you a bike-safe route, off busy streets? Thanks

Plan my roadtrip.

lockestockbarrel — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:40:17 -0800

PlanMyRoadtrip Filter: Driving from St. Louis, MO to Brownsville, TX in 3 days. What should we do along the way? My wife and I are driving from St. Louis, MO to Brownsville, TX, leaving on Monday, March 9th. The only constraint is that we have to arrive in Brownsville three days later. However we divide up the distance between the three days is fine.

Because we have three days to take the trip, we'd like to do some sightseeing along the way. As we've never driven through this area of the US, we'd like to see places, do things, and eat things that are representative of the region. We'll likely be through this area again, so it's not a farewell tour or anything like that. We're in our mid-20s and adventurous -- we'd like to see sights, eat local food, take photographs, walk around places, etc., but we'll have a car full of stuff so take that into account.

The default GoogleMaps route takes us through OK (a seemingly boring route) but we hit Dallas and Austin. I was thinking we could drive directly south through Memphis to New Orleans, then cut west along the gulf through Houston. It's less important for us to see Austin on this trip as we'll probably visit there later; it's less likely we'll visit New Orleans from Brownsville.

As far as the driving, we just have to arrive three days after we depart. So we could drive one day to New Orleans, stay one day, then drive the rest the second day. Or we could drive to Memphis, then drive to New Orleans, then drive the rest. Or we could drive to New Orleans, drive to Houston, then drive the rest. Or we could drive to Dallas, stay the next day, then drive the rest. You get the idea. Driving 11 or 12 hours in a day is not a big deal for us.

So:
1. How should we design our route?
2. We have to sleep twice on the trip. Where?
3. Where should we eat?
4. What should we go see/do/experience?

Thanks, MeFi!

How does the Google Streetview driver decide what path he will take to get the most coverage with the least repetition?

farmersckn — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:10:44 -0800

I have a task where I have a bunch of streets that I need to drive on, (but not all streets like StreetView) and I would like to know how is the best method to accomplish this while limiting the amount of extra un-needed driving? I have poked about into the "Travelling Salesman Problem" and it is geared towards travelling to different "cities or points" not paths or streets.

I also have thought about doing a "zigzag" where I start at the north west corner of the map and travel east on the northernmost street and then go south at the end of that street until I get to the next east-west street and go west until I get to the westernmost part of the street and then go south again... rinse repeat,
and then do it again but at a 90 degree rotation so now my primary direction of travel is north/south and i use the east-west streets to move over one street again...

That sounds so much more complicated than it really is...

Its more like... Go west until you are done with the street. Now go down one block and go East until you are done with that street. Now go down another block and go west until you are done...

Where this gets problematic is when you have weird layouts in your city like angled streets or circular neighborhoods or big blocks taken out of your map like for airports or schools.

Any suggestions or research material I could look at?

Thank you

Road trip!

piro — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:26:56 -0800

Road trip! I'm planning a road trip to numerous locales scattered across much of the north-eastern half of the USA, and was curious about software that might help me optimize the route planning, given a list of destinations in no particular order.

Austin to Port A

rleamon — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:53:14 -0800

The best route to drive from Austin to Port Aransas, Texas? If you know a faster way and a slower, more scenic one, plus something in between, bonus points to you!

Best route from SoCal to Washington?

fermion — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:56:27 -0800

I'll be driving from Los Angeles to the Seattle area in a few weeks. I don't want to endure the dreariness of I-5 all the way up, but I also don't want to spend too much time on the trip. Three days would probably be ideal; four would be acceptable. What route will provide the best balance of beauty/points of interest and expediency? Routes that won't be too hard on my elderly and heavily-laden Civic are a bonus. Note: I've looked over previous threads on coastal roadtrips, but they're mostly more focused on sight-seeing than I'll have time for.

How to easily update an online map when abroad?

XiBe — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:53:45 -0800

[TravelFilter] What would be an easy and cheap way to get a map update of my brother whereabouts for his year-long asian trip? (this is a follow-up to this thread)

My brother is going to be one the road for more than a year, backpacking with no personal computer, and getting Internet access as he can find it (cafés, hotels, etc.). We're planning on building a blog for him to write about his trip to us, but knowing where exactly he is could be a cool addition to the site.

I don't quite know how to tackle this. Here are my ideas so far:
- He sends the name of his current city by e-mail, and we update the (static) map by hand. But that's laborious.
- We code a gmaps/y!maps/whatever hack where he could just send in his current city to a form, and the map updates itself based on that new information. But that requires coding, obviously. (would be cool is this existed as an online service).
- We make him carry around some sort of GPS-updater that automatically send data to a server, which produces the map - as I've seen some hobby runners do here and there. But that's expensive as heck.

Do you have any idea or suggestions about handling that kind of data easily, cheaply, and from afar?

Thanks a lot.

MotorcycleNYCFilter: getting out to Long Island alive?

swngnmonk — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:26:05 -0800

I'm a fairly new motorcycle rider (MSF class, less than 1,000 miles so far), and I'm looking for a route out to Eastern Long Island that is both fun and not completely insane, especially through Queens & Nassau County. My longer rides to date have been up the Palisades to Harriman & the surrounding area. If I was in a car, I'd simply forgo the fun aspect & get on either the LIE or the Grand Central/Northern Pkway, but both of those routes are pretty dicey, and stress-inducing even in a car. My time is flexible - I'd plan on doing the trip during off-hours, both heading out & returning. Suggestions much appreciated. FWIW, I'm heading out from Park Slope.

if i had waited ten more exits the gas would have been 10 cents cheaper!

kidsleepy — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:31:58 -0800

How can I find the cheapest gas along a route? I know how to find the cheapest gas in my area code or city, but I'm going on a 6-hour round trip this weekend and would like to figure out where to stop along the way for the best gas prices. Are there any websites out there that will let you plug in a starting city and destination city? Or perhaps a google maps plug-in? Ideally the results would be limited to gas stations within a few miles of a highway exit (or whatever route you choose).

Crossing America..

bobbyone — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:16:11 -0800

Me and three friends are flying out to drive across America, mainly following the old Route 66. I have two main questions: 1) What's worth seeing on this route? 2) What should we be wary of? Also, any other advice is more than appreciated.

all the main streets, on one long sign.

twistofrhyme — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:14:06 -0800

where can i find a rolling sign from the top of a toronto transit streetcar? i'm talking about the changeable, white-text-on-black-background signs that indicate the route. better description and photo inside. i love signs like this. in a condo ad a while back, i saw a similar sign from a TTC streetcar- it had all the main routes (spadina, roncesvalles, king, queen, college, etc) on it. it was a lot bigger than the san francisco bus sign in the linked photo- like 8 feet long by 2 feet wide. anyone know where i can find one- or even what they're properly called?
(typography side-question- i don't know the word for the way the font is laid out on the TTC streetcar sign, but if i did, it might help me find one. what's it called when each font is scaled so all the words in a column are the same width but different heights, like in the top left corner of this book?)
thanks!

Good motorcycle route from NYC to Baltimore?

dickyvibe — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 16:46:23 -0800

Taking my last motorcycle trip of the season. Anyone have suggestions for a more pleasant riding route from NYC to Baltimore than I-95? I don't mind an extra hour or two; the more rural the better.

US 1 to-dos

sandra_s — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 07:16:50 -0800

What is there to do on US Route 1? In mid-September, I will be driving between Fredericksburg, VA and Port Canaveral, FL. The good news is that I have 3 or 4 days to do the trip in, and absolutely no hard schedule to keep (other than actually getting to Port Canaveral on the last morning). Because I actually want to see things in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, instead of taking I-95 down (I will have to take it back up for speed’s sake), I would like to take US 1 as much as possible.

Along the way, what would you recommend as far as:

-Locally owned and operated diners
-Places to stop at along the road (food, attractions, stands…)
-Non-chain restaurants
-cool things to see
-nasty things to avoid
-*BIG* Shopping
-*little* Shopping
-unique (and hopefully reasonably priced / cheap=good :-) non-chain motels/lodging
-and generally any other must-see, must do things.

...and why.

Please limit responses to things actually on or within 2 miles of US Route 1.

Thanks in advance!

Last Minute Travel Planning-Filter

Danelope — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:54:56 -0800

What's the best route to take from Philadelphia to State College, PA? I'm flying into Philadelphia tomorrow and, after a short stop, need to drive to State College, PA. Google Maps and Mapquest provide vastly different directions, with travel time ranging from 3.5 to 4.5 hours. Any advice on the best route to take (preferably with focus on simplicity, as I've never been to PA before)?

Giant PDF file + Palm = Disaster?

onshi — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:46:35 -0800

How can I make this TTC transit system map [pdf 1.6mb] Palm TX friendly? ... without having to write a custom app of some kind, that is.

Can it be done? Creating a series of small jpgs might work, but the map is very large and I was hoping to be able to scroll and zoom.

Attempting to open the unaltered PDF with Acrobat Reader on the Palm crashes my TX and forces it to reboot. Is there a better PDF viewer in shareware or freeware capable of handling large, complicated files?

I know of other city mapping solutions, such as Mapopolis, but as a car-free transit rider an accurate route map is really important to me.

How to plan the most efficient route?

jasonsmall — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:59:31 -0800

I'm planning to visit every stop on a major metropolitan subway system in a single day (long story), and need to plan the most efficient route. Anyone know of useful technology/mathematical theories that help with route planning?

Postcard Archives

BrodieShadeTree — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:55:32 -0800

How could a person go about finding photographs of a certain Route 66 tourist attraction from its long past glory days? I would be looking to find postcards, tourist snap shots etc. Is there a library of congress link, or a message board. Or even better , a place to find actual pre-computer archives of such a thing? I have looked and beyond the obvious few google hits I am coming up short. After a visit there this past weekend, I am very curious to see what Two Guns looked like ni the 20/30's.

Best Winter Route SLC to Orlando

silusGROK — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 11:10:06 -0800

What's the best overland route between Salt Lake City, UT and Orlando FL? A friend has just moved out of state for work, and he needs me to drive his car out for him. So I'm hopping in the car early Friday morning and driving from Salt Lake City to Orlando... MORE INSIDE In designing the route, I have a few issues that need to be addressed:

First-off, I'm worried a little about driving across the northern plains... so I'm considering taking a southern route: specifically, driving south to Las Vegas and then across the country across the southern reaches of the Rockies through Santa Fe. But I don't know that area, and for all I know it's worse than the northern route.

Secondly, my friend is considering flying out to meet me en-route Friday night (he has to work Friday)... so it would be handy to hit a town with a major airport Friday night (late).

Cue sheet generation

ObscureReferenceMan — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 09:17:33 -0800

I'm looking for a way to generate bike "cue sheets". Currently I'm doing this by hand, either with a hard copy of map, or using Mapquest and a ruler. Not very exact, but close. It also takes a looong time. I'm hoping there's some kind of software (preferably on-line) that would 1) be more accurate, and 2) allow for semi-interactive "tweeking". Meaning I could, say, change a "leg" of the route without having to re-calculate all subsequent points. I don't necessarily need special software to print - MS Word seems to do that fine. Just creation and modification/tweeking. I hope I'm getting my meaning across.

BikeThisWay.com is nice, but it's more of a clearing house of existing routes. (Plus, I just checked it recently, and seems to be having problems.)

A search resulted in this AskMe thread which came close to the question, but still not quite on the nose. Thanks!

Help with GIS routing software?

machaus — Sun, 06 Feb 2005 17:18:43 -0800

Need some advice on GIS route software. Let's say hypothetically that I had one van and knew that I could sell X number of widgets in each city of a particular state per day. Anyone aware of a driver route simulation program that can use weighted business opportunity to create a maximized daily itinerary?