gmaps pedometer...
 

...is the SNACKS! am i the only person on here that uses it? maybe im the only person without a computer, or the superhero ability to accurately determine distances and elevation changes. but if youre dumb like me and love this thing as much as i do, say hell yeah.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

Yeah, I use it, but there are a couple things in the works that are going to blow it away...

And I can't really say more than that...

I used that for awhile, but when I bought my Garmin Edge 305 for route mapping I started using the utility for course creation by the dude who runs that site. Similar idea, but I can download the map I build to my computer and follow it on my ride.

If you're the type to carry a GPS with you, USA Photo Maps at http://www.jdmcox.com/ is a fun utility as well. You can upload the tracks from your trip and get a look at where you were on satellite, aerial and topo maps.

im a big fan of gmaps-pedometer. i got a collection of saved rides around the bay area now on it. love the elevation function.

things that will blow it away, eh? look forward to that!

gmaps can still be improved a lot. Unfortunately the creator doens't seem willing to do anything about it. It also uses outdated maps.

i use it all the time. in fact i use it for every distance riding that i do.
today i rode my bike from santa maria to san luis obispo. deffinately
the farthest ive ridden.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=320239

Pretty cool. I found out that I suck at estimating distances.

I've been selling myself short by as much as 50% for years. According to that site, I've been riding much further than guess-timated.

I really love it. But, I wish that there was a way to input a GPS track and have that be translated to a route... That would be the tightness.

Now I'm waiting with bated breath for what HereNT has planned.

I prefer Google Earth

i'm not familiar with them, but i'm pretty sure that a lot of handheld gps units have software that allow you to load your tracked route onto mapping software on a computer. my brother, who's a scientist and into such electronic dorkery, does that when he goes hiking.

Yes, there definitely are such softwares. But they don't talk to the g-map pedometer. But I have a buddy who is working on it.

Check out Routeslip: http://www.routeslip.com for a bike specific ride site. Much more polished than GMaps Pedom

I use it too, I really enjoy it! I'm currently working the Trans Am route on it in increments. In this way I can get on a library computer and study the route periodically. I have also traced all of my local routes on it. It seems highly accurate.

That's nice too!

Its a Google API, like all other APIs I'm aware of, it uses Teleatlas road data, google maps use Navtech data. I'm not sure why they both don't use the same road data, but I'll bet it has something to do with the million dollar plus price tag for data.


Yeah, routeslip is much better.

The elevation feature doesn't work right, it only measures altitude difference between your marked points. For instance, if you follow a straight road that descends 500 feet and climbs 600 over a mile, it will show a constant upward slope of 100 feet/mile.

Depends on the level of detail of the elevation data that the USGS has.

Sigh. Is there any reason not to have a "fullscreen" option or one where the map takes up the entire browser window without widgets and stuff on the side...? Why the heck is routeslip designed for a specific resolution?

These are great apps but no one even bothered to do a quick 5 minute evaulation of their own site. For ****s sake.

It's impossible to tell now whether the elevation data you're getting was extrapolated or whether it was real. Which renders it close to useless, if not worse.

How? I just figured out a "quick" route from my house to work that has half the climbing distance as my "fun" route, and is also 1 mile shorter. The grade is lower and only 1 hill as opposed to multiple hills.

What do people want? A personal surveyor to go out and shoot their route for free?

[FWIW - I work in CAD/Mapping/GIS for the local government and the data is spot on for what we use. Google interpolates, it does not extrapolate. Extrapolate = guessing, Interpolate = educated guessing]

I looked at a route by my house that has a big hill. If I go from point A to point B, it shows a straight line of elevation change. If I go from point A to point B in very small increments, the line represents the hill. So the problem's not the data set, it's the calculation. The only data points used are the start and endpoints.

Finally someone understands!

http://routeslip.com/ is pretty cool too.