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Google Maps Hacks

simonweckert.com

251–260 of 397 posts

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont think it's necessarily a bad thing

Yeah, "don't inconvenience anyone else" is a pretty good as far as simple driving strategies go.

Agreed. It's a close cousin of my personal #1 driving safety strategy: "don't do anything surprising."

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#252

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

> Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity.

There are some hidden gems out there. I've been using Locus Map Pro (Android app) for all my cycling and geocaching needs for the last few years, and some of the things you mention do have solutions in it. The app is not at all beginner-friendly, there's like a million various options and functions, but if you're willing to spend time configuring it, usually you can have it do whatever you want.

> I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area

When planning a route, it's possible to choose whether to generate navigation instructions, and this can be chosen for any part of the route separately. It's also possible to delete individual nav instructions or manually add new ones.

> I can't compare multiple modes of transportation on the same map

The route can be saved and then shown/hidden on the map, and there's probably no limit on how many routes can be shown. Color and line width is configurable, too. But yeah, it will be quite a manual process, unfortunately.

> There's no way to optimize for minimizing left turns

I think that if the navigation engine is switched to BRouter, it's possible to assign different weights to left/right turns. But I have to admit that tweaking these parameters is too much even for me.

At this point it's also worth mentioning that it only uses OSM routing engines (GraphHopper, BRouter, YOURS), so it can't take traffic into account. Which is fine for my needs (cycling), as I'd rather see the Strava heatmap (and I can!) than live traffic data. :-)

(I'm not affiliated with the project but I do use it a lot and have built an add-on against their API, so I'm a huge fanboy.)

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#253
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mostly given up on unprotected left turns onto huge streets (El Camino Real in my part of the Bay Area). I'd rather turn right and then take the next U-turn to get back to where I want to go. It reduces my social anxiety of people piling up behind me as I want to turn left, and it reduces my perception (right or wrong) of risk. When I turn left, I need to alternate looking left and right. When I turn right, I mo…

In many legislations you are supposed to cycle against the motortraffic, especially if there is a bikepath.

Per this list of US state bicycle laws [0] (I don't have easy access to bicycle laws in other countries, so I can't attest to them), I don't see a single state that requires cyclists to ride against traffic. To the contrary, every single state (barring Illinois, which suggests that bicycles be treated as traffic but leaves direct enforcement up to individual municipalities) appears to require that cycles travel with traffic (see all references to "as far to the right as possible" in the "Where To Ride" sections).

[0] https://bikeleague.org/StateBikeLaws

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#254

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

>There's no way to optimize for minimizing left turns, especially onto busy streets. Woah, I've never heard anyone else mention this problem. It sounds strange having it said "out loud" because I thought it was just a weird personal quirk/irritation of mine. I have always wished there was a route option of "easy mode driving," or "no pressure route." Often the "quickest" route google maps shows me is one that has som…

I don't have anxiety about busy turns or cars behind me, but I still roll my eyes at elective left turns and stop signs, because I can't see how they're expected to save time. I would believe it could work out if you do rolling stops, accelerate hard between stop signs, and perform left turns with narrow margins. But if you're not driving that way, many "shortcuts" seem utterly counterproductive.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#255

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

Another feature I want is "money is no object mode" when travelling around new york city. Sometimes it's fastest to take the subway, sometimes it's fastest to take a Lyft/Uber, but sometimes it's fastest to take the subway part of the way, and then take an uber from there. This last situation is really tough to figure out by hand with the existing tools.

Here you go: https://www.uber.com/blog/new-york-city/uber-copter/

I promise it's almost always the fastest (I knew someone who had corporate access to it for big clients).

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also important for these apps to consider if it's really legally allowed for the current driver of the current vehicle to drive on that street.

Is it? I think we can decide for ourselves.

I don't know; I rented a truck in an NYC outer borough for a move and had the hardest time navigating through the city because I had no easily accessible way to figure out where trucks were allowed.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#257
This is not a hack. A hack is something that lets you achieve some sort of goal.

This is some silly prank made to look like a hack to get on the front page of hacker news.

So that's the real hack. "techies love to see stuff like this to make them feel smart!"

Worked.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#258

Navigation apps have mostly settled into a comfortable state of "good enough" mediocrity. In addition to the "red but no traffic" problems highlighted by others I find turn by turn directions are incredibly annoying while driving in areas I'm intimately familiar with and there's no way to say "I know what I'm doing when I'm in this area" or "pause giving me voice directions for 10 minutes". Additionally: * I can't co…

Like others, I'm glad to see somebody else has noticed the turn issue with navigation. Minimising difficult turns (left/right depending on where you are in the world) across multiple lanes would be fantastic. Many a time I've need to navigate somewhere fast, so even if I could've found my own way there I'll use Gmaps to find the "quickest" router around traffic, etc. Sometimes it works great, others I find I'm having…

Microsoft Streets & Trips had this feature around 1997. It also had the feature your parent asked for where it would optimize a route with more than two locations (travelling salesman).

Yes, 1997, so you needed a laptop in your car and a person other than the driver to operate it, but it worked.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is this: If it was only phones running Maps, they wouldn't get much data. Phones running Maps are actively using the GPS, so they provide more precise data. Those sitting idle just get tower location, which helps fill in some vague flow information but doesn't do much for specific street or momentary speed.

> Those sitting idle just get tower location Do you have links or google keyword hints to more information about that? Is that OS specific?

The GPS hardware is pretty power hungry, so is normally only switched on rarely for short bursts unless the user is actively navigating.

You can see that with `adb logcat` on an android phone.

Re: Google Maps Hacks

#260
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have it, not only the code but labelled dataset I created with an arduino, first, and then iPhone. It’s been a private repository forever, but thanks! I’ll make it public and Edit post the link down here. (Its not pretty though...) Edit: https://github.com/prashnts/MPU-9250 I have proper project reports I’d submitted somewhere for sure, as well. I’ll add it there in repo. I never bothered earlier. Edit 2: this was…

I enjoyed reading that, thank you!

Thanks! To be more honest, this paper had a "constraint" against using FFT, simply because I didn't really know how it worked then...
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