Elevation auto-routing



zmalol

New Member
Aug 28, 2011
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Hi there,

I like to cycle hilly terrains like ones in southern Germany for example. To plan the route I often use on-line cycling services like bikemap, bikely or others. I also use auto-routing in my GPS. It is fine to get shortest way using auto-routing but there is one important feature missing at all. I mean ELEVATION PROFILE AUTO-ROUTING. While riding a bike in a hilly terrain there is a risk of too many unexpected ups and downs especially in the area with extensive road network. I often try to choose optimal elevation profile, but it is hard to get the proper one. That is why I would suggest a following feature for an on-line mapping tools for cyclists. Let's find a route from A to B. Click on a map and mark A and then mark B. We get a shortest possible way without bothering with the elevation profile. That is simple but I would like to see an additional ELEVATION option (in a tab or under an extra button). There should be a three radio buttons or check boxes to choose from three different elevation profiles: # - find easy flat route # - find intermediate route # - find tough steep route Below there should be just one more question: Add extra # % to the shortest distance. (this is the option to choose how much more we would like to ride to get the requested profile). Let's assume that we are lazy but have plenty of time to ride longer flat trip so we choose "easy" elevation profile and 50 % of extra distance. Now it is turn of the script to find a requested route from A to B. I can not imagine what kind of algorithm shall be used to select a route but it might be some tracking in a loop to find a lowest/highets "gain" or "total climb" parameter in a fixed distance range? I hope I described it correcty what I mean. I am sure many cyclists would love this feature.
Cheers,
zmalol