Interesting Google Maps "Pedometer" Mashup

[DrewKnight]

A friend shared this with me today -- it's an interesting tool built on top of Google Maps which allows you to "measure" a line as you might on a paper map with a piece of string. The user interface is a bit inscrutable but worth figuring out:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

A couple tips:

- Enter a town name in the "Jump to" field at the top of the map.

- Select "Topo" as your map type. (You could do satellite, too)

- Click "Recording..." button and begin double-clicking to drop waypoints along your road, trail, etc. By taking short nibbles, you can negotiate curves, etc.

- Dragging your mouse scrolls the map.

Have fun!

 

[cbcbd]

Yep, I regularly use the gmaps-pedometer as well as mapmyrun (or mapmyride).
A couple more mileage mappers are mentioned in the thread below:
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10988

 

[dentonfabrics]

it's an interesting tool built on top of Google Maps which allows you to "measure" a line as you might on a paper map with a piece of string.

I havent checked out that link yet but that sounds that the type of technology that the AMC is using for their online mapping site. I'm one of their beta testers and it's fun to use once you get it figured out.

 

[hikingfish]

Not to hijack this thread (far from it!), but I've started using MotionBased.com recently. It's free and it gives you all kinds of information about an outing (provided you remembered to bring along your GPS). Of course, you still need to use the software of your choice (like gmap-pedometer) if you want to map out your way before leaving the house...but once you get back home, you can find out a lot of nifty things about your outing:

Min/Max/Avg speed while ascending
Min/Max/Avg speed while descending
Min/Max/Avg speed while on flat
Speed, speed vs elevation graph
Total outing time: total active vs break time.
Total distance traveled: distance asending/descending/flat.

Really cool stuff! Here are some examples:
Bike ride in Oka, Quebec
Hike up Mont St-Anne
Another bike ride, around the Orleans Island

Cheers,

Fish

 

[DougPaul]

Not to hijack this thread (far from it!), but I've started using MotionBased.com recently. It's free and it gives you all kinds of information about an outing (provided you remembered to bring along your GPS).

Take a look at a .gpx file (it is XML text). If you have any programming skills, it is trivial to write a program to read and analyze it.

but once you get back home, you can find out a lot of nifty things about your outing:

Min/Max/Avg speed while ascending
Min/Max/Avg speed while descending
Min/Max/Avg speed while on flat
Speed, speed vs elevation graph
Total outing time: total active vs break time.
Total distance traveled: distance asending/descending/flat.

Be careful about the max speed numbers based upon a GPS track--it only takes one or two bad fixes to give some wildly inflated numbers. (Walkers doing 100+mph, etc.)

Doug

 

[hikingfish]

Take a look at a .gpx file (it is XML text). If you have any programming skills, it is trivial to write a program to read and analyze it.


Be careful about the max speed numbers based upon a GPS track--it only takes one or two bad fixes to give some wildly inflated numbers. (Walkers doing 100+mph, etc.)

Doug

I am a programmer actually, so I'm sure it's just getting the hang of parsing the XML file.

I got inflated numbers when I forgot to close the GPS after a hike and ended up driving for a mile or so at 80km/h ;-)

Fish