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Journey Planning App - does one exist?

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  • 03-10-2018 12:52pm
    #1
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭


    I use Google Maps daily - it gets me from A to B painlessly, by car, bike or walking. Great!


    But, what I'd like to be able to do is this.....


    Say I want to travel from my current (Dublin) location and visit five towns and villages in Wicklow and return to my base in Dublin.


    Is there an app where I can input multiple locations and find the shortest route/circuit to visit all of them?


    I don't think I can do this with Google Maps. Is there another app?


    Thanks.

    D.


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    #2
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,467 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    You could sort of do this with Google Maps. Google maps allows you to plan a journey at a particular time:

    So plan journey from A to B at say 9am. Then Plan to stay at B for 2 hours, so plan next leg as:
    Plan journey from B to C, leaving B at 11am, do the same for the next leg.

    It won't do all this in one step, you will have to sort of work out each leg individually.


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    #3
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    I doubt it
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem


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    #4
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    RayCun wrote: »
    I doubt it
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem


    That's exactly what I'd like to be able to do.


    Since Google Maps can get me from home to anywhere in the shortest possible time (it even takes current traffic into account) I would have thought that something would allow me to get to multiple locations the shortest way - accepting that, since I want to stop at each location, time is not the issue, only distance.


    But, I guess if Google aren't doing it, who can?


    Great Wiki link, by the way! ;)


    Thanks.


    D.


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    #5
    HeidiHeidi
    Registered Users Posts: 28,800 ✭✭✭✭HeidiHeidi


    On Google maps there's a button to "add destination", so you can set up a multi-stop route.


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    #6
    baby and crumble
    Registered Users Posts: 8,512 ✭✭✭baby and crumble


    Yeah it's very easy to do on google maps. Just click 'add destination' and order them the way you want to get to them.


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    #7
    RayCun
    Registered Users Posts: 15,704 ✭✭✭✭RayCun


    baby and crumble wrote: »
    Yeah it's very easy to do on google maps. Just click 'add destination' and order them the way you want to get to them.

    the poster wants google to order the destinations


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    #8
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Yes, but that's not what I want.

    Say I want to visit Blessington, Laragh, Ashford, Bray, Greystones, Wicklow Town.

    I'd like to know the shortest route between all six of them.

    Adding a location doesn't achieve this. You simply end up with blue direction lines criss-crossing the map, rather than the single shortest route bringing me back to where I started, which is what I want - and which is what is discussed in the Wiki link above.

    Thanks.

    D


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    #9
    WillyWonkaBar
    Registered Users Posts: 165 ✭✭WillyWonkaBar


    Something kinda like this perhaps?

    https://www.speedyroute.com/


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    #10
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    WillyWonkaBar wrote: »
    Something kinda like this perhaps?

    https://www.speedyroute.com/


    Absolutely brilliant!


    Thanks!


    D.


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    #11
    Del2005
    Registered Users Posts: 18,872 ✭✭✭✭Del2005


    Dinarius wrote: »
    Absolutely brilliant!


    Thanks!


    D.

    Just be aware that sat nav doesn't know what quality of road it's sending you down it just knows the speed limit. A while ago I used Google to get home from Mayo to Dublin, the GPS took me down some of the worse roads and none that anyone would use if they didn't have GPS. So while that might plot a route it could have you on bad roads to link between towns


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    #12
    towger
    Registered Users Posts: 440 ✭✭towger


    https://roadtrippers.com


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    #13
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Going to Kerry on Thursday.

    Just tried to plan a route taking in, for example, Abbeydorney.

    Unfortunately, Speedy Route doesn’t recognise this town or a couple of others. So, I can’t use it.

    Odd that.

    D.


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    #14
    Lord Glentoran
    Closed Accounts Posts: 876 ✭✭✭Lord Glentoran


    Buy the Ordnance Survey Road Atlas of Ireland. Yes, it is a printed yoke but it will show exactly what class of road you will wish to drive on. You won’t end up some boreen if you read it properly, and a clever ten year old could master it very quickly.


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    #15
    Del2005
    Registered Users Posts: 18,872 ✭✭✭✭Del2005


    Lord Glentoran wrote: »
    Buy the Ordnance Survey Road Atlas of Ireland. Yes, it is a printed yoke but it will show exactly what class of road you will wish to drive on. You won’t end up some boreen if you read it properly, and a clever ten year old could master it very quickly.

    Not very practical to use while driving through. So you need to look at notes to know which junction to turn at while ignoring the device which tells you what junction to turn at and which can also inform you about issues ahead depending on the service you use.


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    #16
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,467 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Lord Glentoran wrote: »
    Buy the Ordnance Survey Road Atlas of Ireland. Yes, it is a printed yoke but it will show exactly what class of road you will wish to drive on. You won’t end up some boreen if you read it properly, and a clever ten year old could master it very quickly.

    You can also get Ordinance Survey maps for smart phones these days.

    Best to plan your journey before hand. Plan it with Google Maps, you can even follow the route via Google Streetview to see what the roads look like. Much better then trying to figure it out from a map.

    Then if you are happy with the route, you can fire it to your phone and follow the turn by turn directions without having to be distracted looking at a paper map.


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    #17
    Del2005
    Registered Users Posts: 18,872 ✭✭✭✭Del2005


    bk wrote: »
    You can also get Ordinance Survey maps for smart phones these days.

    Best to plan your journey before hand. Plan it with Google Maps, you can even follow the route via Google Streetview to see what the roads look like. Much better then trying to figure it out from a map.

    Then if you are happy with the route, you can fire it to your phone and follow the turn by turn directions without having to be distracted looking at a paper map.

    Unless you are driving a large vehicle or a low slung car there are very few roads you can't drive a B licenced vehicle on in this country. I'll admit that sometimes GPS can lead to interesting roads but you'll always get a standard car though unless there are other issues.


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    #18
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Thanks for the replies.

    As per my original request, I am looking for a way of working out the shortest route between a selection of towns that I must stop at. I'm only driving a small van. Road quality is not an issue.

    SpeedyRoute worked perfectly for a recent trip to 10 locations in Kildare and Laois. It recognized all of them.

    For some weird reason, it's not recognizing some locations in Cork and Kerry. Hence my new problem.

    Google Maps is fantastic, but not what I need now.

    Thanks.

    D.


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    #19
    Dinarius
    Registered Users Posts: 3,395 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    On a related matter...

    Where can I find online county maps that I can print?

    I have the Ordnance Survey Road Atlas of Ireland, which is great, but I can't view a single county on a page - too detailed.

    Would like to have the option of an overall view of a county.

    Thanks.

    D.


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    #20
    bk
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,467 Mod ✭✭✭✭bk


    Del2005 wrote: »
    Unless you are driving a large vehicle or a low slung car there are very few roads you can't drive a B licenced vehicle on in this country. I'll admit that sometimes GPS can lead to interesting roads but you'll always get a standard car though unless there are other issues.

    I do a lot of hiking around Ireland and often end up the back of nowhere. Blindly following GPS has certainly lead us down some very interesting boreens.

    I mean you are correct, we did make it out, but not without the car a being a lot more scratched up and suspension and clutch a bit worse for wear.

    Afterwards we realised that there was a slightly longer, but MUCH faster and easier route we could of taken with a bit of better forward planning. So lesson learned.


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