Service that maps best route for multiple points?

[irregardless]

This is something I'm actually surprised to have not found in this day and age.

I'm looking for an online mapping service that allows me to put in a start point and multiple destinations. Then it re-orders the sequence of destinations so that I travel the fastest/shortest possible route.

Four(ish) years ago, MapsOnUs had this function when it was part of Switchboard.com, but it does no longer offers (it was called "Plan Best Tour"). None of the other major online map players offers this.

Is there any smaller site that does this? Or maybe a Google Maps mash-up?

Thanks.

 

[livingfortoday]

Mapquest now lets you do this. Enter in two points, map them, and then on the results page is will have an option for multiple points. You can enter them in, and arrange them as you'd like. I've found it really helpful for long bike trips!

 

[irregardless]

Mapquest now lets you do this. Enter in two points, map them, and then on the results page is will have an option for multiple points. You can enter them in, and arrange them as you'd like. I've found it really helpful for long bike trips!

Thanks for the tip; I hadn't seen that function. Two problems though.

1. It's limited to 10 destinations.
2. I have to manually rearrange the order of stops, leaving me to guess which route is the best after trial and error.

The solution I'm looking for allows me to enter a start location and a bunch of destinations, then it calculates the best way to go. I'm frustrated because this technology existed years ago and I haven't found anything comparable in this day and age of fancy Google Maps and what not.

 

[livingfortoday]

Dang, i guess I've never had to go more than ten places at once! Well, yeah, it seems odd to me too that there isn't anything like that out there. If you find anything outside of MR, make sure to post it here, I'd be curious to see it.

 

[weldon]

You can do this with Microsoft Streets & Trips or MapPoint. After you enter a start point and all the destinations, the software can optimize the route for you. I believe Route 66 for Mac also had this feature, but I'm not sure. Unfortunately, it seems that Route 66 is no longer being developed. You can still buy it for $35. Here's a link to a download service...

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Business/Route-USA-build.shtml

If you are really serious about route optimization, there are many commercial solutions available including ESRI ArcLogistics or a web-based solution from www.cuberoute.com . Those software solutions are generally quite expensive.

You could try and see if Route 66 2004 will do what you want, or you could run the Microsoft software inside a VM (Parallels or VMWare) or use BootCamp to dualboot.

 

[irregardless]

I did some more research and still haven't turned up any online service that will do this. I did find a desktop solution however.

Delorem (http://www.delorme.com/) has some software called Street Atlas USA. It requires a trip into Parallels (Windows only), but once running I can set a start and stop address, then insert waypoints. The route is re-arranged to best accommodate the additions, so this will work for me.

The 2007 version even exports pictures for use on a photo-capable iPod, which sounds pretty neat.

Thank you all for your suggestions!

 

[richfox88]

Best route for multiple points

I also couldn't find a site that will calculate the best route between multiple addresses so I create one that uses Google Maps. A friends of mine has a job delivering flowers and needed a program like this, but I figure other might be able to use it as well. I just added it so please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve it.

www.findthebestroute.com

 

[jknight8907]

Google Maps will do it. Get directions from the origin to the first point, then you can add more points as you please.

 

[gobanban]

There is also this website where you can add multiple stops or destinations by either entering the address, or the GPS coordinates, or simply by clicking on the map: www.itilog.com , and the great thing is you can reorder the stops by just dragging them.