bike paths

[cecil]

I know this has been addressed a little on Bikeportland.org. But here
is is again. I live in Sellwood and take the Eastside trail to the
Hawthorne bridge and cross into downtown. When I put in my addresses
in trip planner it doesn't mention the bike trail and recommends I ride
surface streets the entire way. Will bike paths be a future addition
to the trip planner?

[boz]

Hi. Mark Bosworth here.

Thanks for your input. This is exactly the feedback we are looking
for. Bike Paths ARE currently included in the trip planner, but
sometimes there are glitches in the network we are building that don't
allow access to these resources from surface streets. The original
network was built without regard to how bicycles travel, and that is
what we are trying to capture/accomplish here, so this kind of
information is critical.

Can you give me your specific address so that I can run it and see why
you weren't routed onto the bike trail?

Thanks for your input and support.

Mark

[uuellbee]

The Trip Planner knows about the most of the bike paths in trails in
the region, though the particular version of the data we're using is a
bit out of date, so it might not include *all* of them, especially the
latest connections/additions.

It should know about the Eastside trail, though. If you can post some
addresses that demonstrate what's happening, we might be able to give a
more scientific reason as to why it routes you the way it does. (Note:
the addresses don't have to be for your home, work, etc. if you don't
want to post those, just some that give basically the same result)

A general answer is that the TP is set up to take a kind of
middle-of-the-road approach to finding a route: it tries to use the
regional bike network (Metro's Bike There map
<http://www.metro-region.org/article.cfm?articleid=218>) without going
to far out of the way. Similarly, it tries to stay on streets with less
traffic and avoid hills-again without going to far out of the way
(which is also why it picks "red" streets sometimes).

One of the next big thing we are planning to roll out is the ability
for users to select a route preference-safer/faster/flatter/etc. We
have the framework for this in place; we just need to work out some
details. In a future release, we'd like to offer more advanced user
options and the ability for users to save profiles.

[cecil]

I think that the route preference option is an excellent idea. Without
giving you my specific address I have put in two intersections in
Sellwood that have given me the same route that does not include the
eastside trail. 7th and Spokane and 9th and Miller.

[ryan]

It seems like there should be some preference for existing bike routes
as well, Coming from 34th and Belmont to Hollywood Library the trip
planner avoids the Pedestrian bridge and bike route on 41st (or is it
42nd) in favor of crossing I-84 at 33rd.

This might be a preference thing but I thought I would throw it out
there.

Ryan