Because it seemed like a good idea at the time. In all seriousness,
I wanted a way to find a safe, speedy way from point A to point B while on my bike.
I have a suggestion.
That's not a question, but you can e-mail me at suggestions_at_pdxbikemap_dot_org
How do I report a problem?
First, look at the Issues page and if it's not there send e-mail to the above address.
Who's paying for this? Do you make any money?
Me. No.
Can I help?
Right now, I'm most interested in hearing about things that you find strange or that don't work the way you think they should. If you have some experience as a web designer, especially if you're comfortable with ExtJS, then I might have something for you.
So how do you decide what's a safe way for bikes?
The routing algorithm assigns a cost to each segment of street (by default this is just the length of the street). The cost is then adjusted by whether or not there is a bike path, a high traffic street, etc. This is the same data you see on those bike maps around town. There's also a weighting that takes into account the slope of each segment (so steep streets are given a higher cost if you're going up them and a lower cost if you're going down them).
So what are these weights?
Currently they are:
Type
Weight
Bike Path
0.3
Multi-use path
0.3
Low traffic through street
0.3
Moderate traffic through street
0.75
High traffic through street
2
Caution area
5
Elevation
(1+slope)^2
How did you arrive at those weights?
Mostly experimentation – so they're subject to change.
I don't mind high traffic streets, can I change the weight?
