It's 2019, yet route planning tools are abysmal

[RJJ]

[QUOTE=kidjedi;2257425]
~ So when you're driving on 36 (a wonderful road that goes from Indianapolis to Boulder), Google will CONSTANTLY try and route you back to 70, no matter what you do. It's infuriating. ~



You can select "avoid highways" in most GPS progs and it won't take to back to the interstate.

[Janet H]

Originally Posted by kidjedi

I suppose I should post what I actually want, to make things as clear as possible.

1. I would like to be able to put in a route that might include smaller roads and scenic routes, and NOT let the app change my route. If there are obstacles, there will be signs to follow to around them. If there is traffic, I can deal with it! Sure, let me know it's there, but don't assume I need to drive 60 miles out of my way to avoid half an hour of sitting. If you *must* suggest alternate routes, at least let me reject them.

Trip wizard will let you do this. You can specifically choose avoid highways in your trip settings or you can drag the planned route to an alternate route.

2. I would like to be able to put in my own speed for the vehicle I am driving, and I would like distance and time estimates to my next stop and my final destination.

Trip wizard asks you about your average travel speed and calculates trip time appropriately

3. I would like to be able to search along my route in real time without the app crashing or losing my route. Having to pull over to re-plan/re-enter my route, so I'm not a danger to everyone on the road is not acceptable (and that entering/planning often takes LOTS of time), and ALL these apps and services are guilty of this problem. How hard is it to save the current route and way-points regularly so I can return to the route if the app crashes or service is lost? I spent a lot of time on this last trip pulling over just to re-enter information into my device! And I know most people don't pull over to do this, they just drive while device-ing and endanger us all.

Trip wizard may not be the tool... it needs a robust data connection to calculate routes and locate points of interest. but you can plan in advance and then use it for turn by turn while in route.

4. It would be great if I could enter time/distance from where I am or a specific place and then see concentric circles on an overview map that would let me know what is inside those limits. If I know I've got 6 hours to drive, I'd like to know what I can see in that amount of time, and where I should be looking to overnight.

Trip wizard displays one two or three circles for you based on your input AND you can disable that display if you find it distracting.

Bonus points if the app/service could let me know the route elevation so I can estimate road grade along the way.

Again, trip wizard does this - displaying elevation along the route so you can calculate as desired.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by CruizinDux

. . .
Don't let the tail wag the dog
woof

Thanks, Bob. Not sure how many folks have experienced the pleasure of flipping through a spiral-bound road atlas, remembering past trips, and planning out possible journeys . . .



Bet Wally used a road atlas!

[kidjedi]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

“Have road atlas and pencil . . . will travel . . . “

For the record, the trip before this one was to visit friends in Vegas via the Grand Canyon. My seven year old learned to use an atlas on that trip (we purchased a Rand McNally before we left)! There was some frustration at first, but it didn't take too long.


Then, for this last trip, on the way out, we used NO electronics to get to our desitnation... 1,100 miles! My seven year old was in charge of the map, and we took smaller roads. It was great, and he felt such a sense of accomplishment.


While I was using the devices to plan/follow our route, the kiddo followed along in the atlas, and told me things like how far to the next town, how far to our next destination, what another good route may have been, etc.

[OTRA15]

Originally Posted by kidjedi

For the record, the trip before this one was to visit friends in Vegas via the Grand Canyon. My seven year old learned to use an atlas on that trip (we purchased a Rand McNally before we left)! There was some frustration at first, but it didn't take too long.
Then, for this last trip, on the way out, we used NO electronics to get to our desitnation... 1,100 miles! My seven year old was in charge of the map, and we took smaller roads. It was great, and he felt such a sense of accomplishment.

Excellent!

Words alone cannot express the gifts you have given him . . . of valuable life lessons, tools . . . and the knowledge that he can do this!

Commendable parenting.

Peter

[stevejones]

Has anyone tried using the AAA mobile app?

We were at a AAA store this morning getting paper maps and the lady there was suggesting we try it...

Steve

[stevejones]

Originally Posted by stevejones

Has anyone tried using the AAA mobile app?

We were at a AAA store this morning getting paper maps and the lady there was suggesting we try it...

Steve

So trying to use it now, and the app cannot find the RV park we're going to next either by name or address.

Guess that answers the question as to whether or not it is worth using...

Steve

[CruizinDux]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Excellent!

Words alone cannot express the gifts you have given him . . . of valuable life lessons, tools . . . and the knowledge that he can do this!

Commendable parenting.

Peter

Peter great comments, on all accounts. Can't agree more!
B

[OTRA15]

PS — FYI Ray Eklund’s DeLorme thread has good links and discussions of various “hard copy” trip planning tools:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f382...ff-146957.html

Don’t laugh and scuff at these old fashioned tools . . .

After the first major nuclear explosion wipes out most worldwide wireless communication, these tools will still be quite usable.



Not if, but when!

Peter

IMO

[kidjedi]

Just gave the RV Trip Wizard another shot. However, the "demo" is way too hobbled for me to be able to make a decision. I know $39 isn't a lot for a year, especially for a good tool, but I don't have enough "extra" cash right now to gamble with forty bucks. If it does what I need it too, I'd be happy to pay that amount (I think it's a fair amount), but I'm not going to just blindly trust that it's what I need/want.

The demo does not even let you create a trip. If you can't save or export the trip, what in the world is the harm of letting a potential user try out the *actual* functionality of the app? I don't want to alter a trip that's already been created, I want to see how it works for the kind of trip that I will be taking (the kind of trip *I* would create).

Furthermore, you can't even alter the demo trip but to delete stops (you can't add start or end or even way points!).

This is far less a demo than just a feature tour, which might be fine for some, but after my experience with all the "others," I just don't trust any app/service without being able to try out the functionality on my own.


EDIT: I see now that you *can* add stops, it just wasn't intuitive *how." To add stops, you need to search something, then click on the icon for that thing (you can't add anything without an icon), then click "more details," then click "add to trip."

FWIW, it would be nice if the "add to trip" allowed a "before" option, not just "after" for inserting points, but that's a nit-pick.

More that wasn't evident... you *can* right click on the map and add a point like a dropped pin. RV Trip Wizard will let you add a location called "near [wherever you clicked]." For some reason this wasn't working for me at first, but it's working now, and that's *exactly* a feature I was looking for. However, you can only "drop a pin" that way. If you click on a place on the map that doesn't have an in-app icon (stored in the RV Trip Wizard database I assume), then the only option you have is "view on Google Maps." In other words, if I see "Centennial Cone" on the map and I click it, it doesn't allow me to add that Point of Interest to my trip (I can only "view on Google Maps"). In order to add it, I would need to enter the place into the search bar, hope RV Trip Wizard has it as a recognized place, click on the icon, then add it to my trip. Otherwise, I have to drop a pin and hope it gets me somewhere near the entrance/campground.


Another EDIT: After a few more minutes of testing features, I will certainly concede that this is the best thing going, but it definitely has room for improvement. From what I've seen on the forums, the creators/administrators are active and attentive, so I have high hopes for this service!

[kidjedi]

Evidently the demo period is only 20 minutes (everything just stopped working for me). You can start over with another demo session, but that's more than a bit frustrating when you've loaded a bunch of stuff in to try and test functionality. Hopefully the demo time period is something that the service admins can change, because 20 minutes isn't near enough time to fully try things out.


EDIT: The pop up dialog said I could start over, but any time I try to do anything, the site simply pops up a dialog window that states: "Demo Session Timed Out" and I can't do anything. I closed the browser, opened it back up, went back to the e-mail link for the demo to see if that would work, but I still get the "Demo Session Timed Out" when I try to do anything. I assume I have to provide another e-mail address to try it out further? If so, that's a major fail on the part of the creators.

[OTRA15]

Kinda complicated . . .



Bring in your seven-year-old son!

[tommym1]

RV Trip Wizard is a great tool! We bought it and use tge RV LIFE app to route appropriately. For 59.00 all your routing questions are answered. Just to be sure, though, we export the GPX files into our GARMIN and use both at the same time.

[Stephanie P]

If you stay at the Casino and cross to the Arch, try to park near the ball park and walk. There really is not a lot of parking close by with the river so high. Depending on how young your youngster is, also consider the City Museum downtown - my kids loved it when they were little (20 years ago). Again, parking is not fun.

[JamuJoe]

Originally Posted by kidjedi

I have spent the better part of the past two hours trying to do some route planning. Usually we "just follow our nose," but the kiddo wanted to see the St. Louis Arch on the way back to Denver, and I though maybe we'd try a trip that included some planned stops.

Road Tripper ($30 for any real functionality), RV Trip Wizard ($40 to use beyond a "demo" that only lets you do what they want), Good Sam advanced trip planner ($29 paid a couple hours ago but I have no idea how long it will be before they actually process my membership and I can use the functionality), Google Maps (what a joke for anything but commuting), Waze (complete fail for choosing "alternate" and especially "scenic" routes), RVParky.com, etc. All of these have left me wondering what in the world is going on in the world of trip planning these days.

My favorite fail so far was trying to add "The Gateway Arch" or "St. Louis Arch" or anything of the sort to RV Parky... I simply can't. It won't let me. I would think that would be one of the most popular destinations in the Midwest, and I can't add it to my route? What the what?! It shows up on the map when you zoom way in (once you've found the location via Google and zoom in to that place on the RV Parky map), but if you click on the "Gateway Arch" icon on their map, the only option is "view on Google maps." You can't click to add. You can't drag and drop the icon into your route. It just taunts you with an icon that does you no good in your trip planning. There doesn't seem to be an address for The Arch other than
"The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO 63102," but when I type that into the "add destination" field on RV Parky, it gives me two choices in a drop down, one of them being... "The Bahamas."

I would be happy to spend forty or fifty bucks on an application or map that works, but none of the ones that people seem to like let you actually try them out (at least not in a meaningful way) before ponying up your cash.

Looks like I'm back to flying by the seat of my pants. Truth be told, I guess I prefer that method anyway.

inRoute on my iPad. Expend the effort to learn the features. If this one can’t do it, you’ll need to consult NASA.

[kidjedi]

Originally Posted by JamuJoe

inRoute on my iPad. Expend the effort to learn the features. If this one can’t do it, you’ll need to consult NASA.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the fact that it's Apple-only is a non-starter.

[AKStreamers]

Originally Posted by kidjedi

I have spent the better part of the past two hours trying to do some route planning. Usually we "just follow our nose," but the kiddo wanted to see the St. Louis Arch on the way back to Denver, and I though maybe we'd try a trip that included some planned stops.

Road Tripper ($30 for any real functionality), RV Trip Wizard ($40 to use beyond a "demo" that only lets you do what they want), Good Sam advanced trip planner ($29 paid a couple hours ago but I have no idea how long it will be before they actually process my membership and I can use the functionality), Google Maps (what a joke for anything but commuting), Waze (complete fail for choosing "alternate" and especially "scenic" routes), RVParky.com, etc. All of these have left me wondering what in the world is going on in the world of trip planning these days.

My favorite fail so far was trying to add "The Gateway Arch" or "St. Louis Arch" or anything of the sort to RV Parky... I simply can't. It won't let me. I would think that would be one of the most popular destinations in the Midwest, and I can't add it to my route? What the what?! It shows up on the map when you zoom way in (once you've found the location via Google and zoom in to that place on the RV Parky map), but if you click on the "Gateway Arch" icon on their map, the only option is "view on Google maps." You can't click to add. You can't drag and drop the icon into your route. It just taunts you with an icon that does you no good in your trip planning. There doesn't seem to be an address for The Arch other than
"The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO 63102," but when I type that into the "add destination" field on RV Parky, it gives me two choices in a drop down, one of them being... "The Bahamas."

I would be happy to spend forty or fifty bucks on an application or map that works, but none of the ones that people seem to like let you actually try them out (at least not in a meaningful way) before ponying up your cash.

Looks like I'm back to flying by the seat of my pants. Truth be told, I guess I prefer that method anyway.

As a fellow Jedi, I simply rely on the force. But when my aura isn’t shining quite as brightly as Peter’s and his magical cartoon drawings and carbon-based writing utensils, I start with Google Maps, then cross-check with RV Trip Wizard. Paper maps are probably more simple for people who are stupid, but I’d like the answer in 5 minutes rather than 5 hours. BTW, my tow vehicle is a diesel GMC not a team of oxen. KISS proponents can kiss my Airstream.

Peace

[rmkrum]

Given a known route planned, a AAA TripTik and tour books is my primary route method backed up by GPS and ‘dead reckoning’** from my Navy days.

** Dead Reckoning is based on course, speed, and time. The ancient mariners joke is, “ you’d better reckon right or you might end up dead. “

[slowmover]

Funny thread title. Should be, “It’s 2019 and my ability to navigate cross-country is a joke”.

It’s not up to others. Same for rig condition and operation.

A). Get a dash-mount compass.

B). A RAND McNALLY COMMERCIAL VEHICLE Road Atlas

C). Pilots once used a knee-board for notes concerning navigation. They’re handy still.

D). A short ruler. 6-8”. Clear. And I’d choose a mechanical pencil.

The “goal” of travel is to get away. That means more than physical distance from home. It’s also means separation from the crowd around you. To me that means using a rest area for lunch, not the fast food counter at the travel center. Navigation means taking the idea of travel seriously. To chart one’s own course. It matters NOT AT ALL making a few mistakes. That’s how experience in READING a map occurs. It becomes a developed skill.

Understand that when you use the same “tools” (they’re not tools, you’ve no input) as the morons using a cell phone to tell them where to go (as they’re INCAPABLE of map-reading) you won’t ever get the break from them cross-country travel deserves.

Those “tools” are unlikely to EVER route you East to West across southern Oklahoma on US-62. And it’s a beauty of a road. Doesn’t lack for amenities.

Travel cross-country is simple enough:

1). The destination is a physical address.

2). The majority of miles will be Interstate Highway

3). Average MPH is 48-52 depending on time spent at stops. Daily distance should be approximately 300-miles (by 400 measurable fatigue is present; at 600 stupidity is at the wheel).

4). Buying fuel is a question of ingress & egress (satellite photo confirmation).

5). Interstate Highway mile markers are the only NEEDED data.


Secondary roads are much more interesting but slower. Picking a fuel stop is mainly looking for a junction of two US Highways. Mile markers may not exist. Thus use of a trip odometer to note distance from a known point to the approximate point of the turn. (Maps have legends which show mile-inches).

Used to be that getting the US MAIL physical address was the hardest part as it also required (expense) making long-distance phone calls. And there wasn’t any way of being sure the person answering knew the best route from an Interstate to that location.

The addition to the Atlas is the US State-published map. At every Wwlcome Center or by mail from that states Dept of Tourism. (If a major city it can become even more involved. But worth it).

Why the wife was the co-pilot and navigator. Someone to help at those critical moments when a turn from the road is imminent (as the wrong choice can entail not being able to turn around. It’s called, unhitch, get back under at a different angle; repeat as necessary).

Yeah, ones competence is the thing. Always has been. Always will be.

Try, instead, welcoming that. Same as with a tow vehicle suited first to family duty. Setting the hitch correctly. Etc. What today’s owners don’t want to do, on the whole.

Tools I don’t own (thus don’t YET know how to use) but are required to do this well — no matter the handicaps present — is my mark for success.

Once upon a time your wife couldn’t cook for beans. Now, your children grown and gone, I’d imagine she’s a dab hand in the kitchen. We’ll assume your carpentry, plumbing, car repair or landscaping abilities, etc, are on par.

If either of you delegated those responsibilities to others — that your family was well-fed, clothed, and sheltered — now is your chance to rectify your shortcomings.

A travel trailer behind a car was how one escaped the high prices and problems of travel by train. Railroad hotels and excursions. As many roads weren’t marked at all, getting lost was par. Nothing to fret over. Can stop right here and sleep.

This is not a nation of immigrants. But of pioneers and settlers. The hard work was just that. It’s an attitude. Expectations are that I won’t run into much at all I can’t do for myself.

So, if I can’t figure out which way to turn from my own driveway . . . .

.

[PatLee]

Do you feel better now?