Dear Cyclopathers
I am on the organizing committee of the Twin Cities Tour de Cure, a
fundraising bike ride for diabetes.  For the 2012 ride, June 2, we will
introduce an urban century.  While we work hard to mark and sign turns,
invariably riders wonder.  They seek assurance they are on the route.  They
also wish to know how far they've gone and how far to the next food stop,
the latter being especially prevalent for diabetic riders.  Routes are
published well in advance on MapMyRide.com.  For example, the century is
here http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/44184766.

GPS function in mobile devices and mapping software, e.g. Cyclopath et al.,
have advanced and become more useful.  I envision a mobile app suitable for
riders who carry a smartphone but are not accustomed to using it's full
capability .  Should the rider wish to confirm their position wrt the course
or determine the distance to the next food stop, he/she could stop, select
the app and receive answers quickly/easily.  From MapMyRide a gpx route file
can be downloaded which can be annotated with food stop waypoints.

To provide a map showing the user's position and the course can an Android
shortcut be configured for Cyclopath to load and go directly to a
pre-determined route?

To provide distance to the next food stop(s), can Cyclopath be configured to
show the on-route distance to intermediate destinations (i.e. waypoints)?

Can MapMyRide be configured to do either of these functions?

thank you,
--
Toby
tobymarkow...@ieee.org
WAMXC http://wamxc.org
Cyclopath http://cyclopath.org/
Tour de Cure http://main.diabetes.org/goto/tobym

Toby,

Thanks for the idea! It has provoked a discussion amongst the Cyclopath team to determine what features this would entail and how close it is to our current development goals. Although we plan to expand Cyclopath Mobile to include GPS-like navigation and the ability to upload GPX tracks and waypoints, these features currently veer too far off course from our goals at this time.

I did a search for apps that provide similar functionality that you are mentioning. Rmaps allows users to upload GPX tracks and add waypoints, but it isn't straight forward to use. Maverick sounded promising, but it's GPS was way off when I tested it.  Because our code is open source, you are also welcome to "hack" Cyclopath Mobile to provide the features you are looking for.

As always, thanks for your interest in Cyclopath, and happy trails,

Phil Brown
Cyclopath Team

On Oct 5, 2011, at 8:04 AM, Toby Markowitz wrote: