Mapping Assistance

What mapping sites do people use for long routes? Many of my routes are too long since Google Maps and Mapquest allow only a limited number of stops. BatchGeo is great for showing the locations on a map, but I need a site that will put them in the most efficient order for me. Any suggestions?

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I haven't run into a limit with Map Quest and it works well for me. I've done at least 20 stops with no issue.

I'm not aware of how to map more than 26 locations with Mapquest.

Call me old-fashioned (and laugh, if you will), but those gol-durned apps and maps on computers and phones will send you 20 miles on a gravel road, or through a cow pasture where no road exists at all, out here in rural Nebraska.

I use paper maps. Preferably the free ones provided by each state's department of roads.

(Go ahead and laugh; I won't mind.)

Oh, and have you tried WAZE?

Bring me. Because of the early job, I can figure out a fast/safe/otherwise good route faster than your phone can.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

There was a website I used several years ago that I found on these boards. It would provide you the most efficient order to do the shops in. I don't remember the name of the website. I believe it allowed you to output the results to Google maps and put them on your phone. I don't have time right now to look for it.

Can't you just make two different maps of 20 stops each? The second one could start at the end point of the first location.

I pay for the Road Warrior app. It allows up to 120 stops.

@wrosie wrote:

There was a website I used several years ago that I found on these boards. It would provide you the most efficient order to do the shops in. I don't remember the name of the website. I believe it allowed you to output the results to Google maps and put them on your phone. I don't have time right now to look for it.

Can't you just make two different maps of 20 stops each? The second one could start at the end point of the first location.

Because sometimes you have more than 20 locations in the same city and if you're not familiar with the area you wouldn't be able to route them in the most efficient route.

My old (2008) Microsoft Streets and Trips just quit working a few weeks ago. I now use the 2013 version. It will route more than 300 stops in the most efficient manner. The only problem I've encounteted is that it's old, so the newer streets aren't included. But, for the 10 or 15 (out of 300) that it can't locate, I look them up on my phone app and then drop a pin in that area on my S&T map.
It works for me! I was freaking out when the 2008 version quit, cause I really, really needed an accurate map for that weekend! .

I am in the same tech boat as you are but I did notice that when driving around the city with my daughter having her app set to fastest route or best route we went thru a lot of alleys and twists and turns that were unnecessary to get somewhere that was 20 seconds faster than picking the slower route that was straightforward. It was definitely not worth all those bumps and turns to save only 20 seconds or even a minute or two. The computer brain has a very different idea of best route than i do. So maybe try to change your choice of route if you find them sending you on terrible or non existent roads.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Call me old-fashioned (and laugh, if you will), but those gol-durned apps and maps on computers and phones will send you 20 miles on a gravel road, or through a cow pasture where no road exists at all, out here in rural Nebraska.

I use paper maps. Preferably the free ones provided by each state's department of roads.

(Go ahead and laugh; I won't mind.)

I shop rural areas, so I am not looking to route addresses so much as to just put the cities in the most efficient order, on my computer rather than a phone app so I can plan my trip. Most of my shops are just one stop per city. Thank you for the suggestions.

@HoomanShopper wrote:

My old (2008) Microsoft Streets and Trips just quit working a few weeks ago. I now use the 2013 version. It will route more than 300 stops in the most efficient manner. The only problem I've encounteted is that it's old, so the newer streets aren't included. But, for the 10 or 15 (out of 300) that it can't locate, I look them up on my phone app and then drop a pin in that area on my S&T map.
It works for me! I was freaking out when the 2008 version quit, cause I really, really needed an accurate map for that weekend! .

I use this too on a regular basis. Works just fine, although I often have to run the addresses through Google maps to clean them up before entering them into S&T.

LOL! My town has one road that runs east-west. A scheduler wants me to do a shop in a town Google says is straight north of my town. Google says there's a road, runs all the way to that town.

It ends in a cow pasture, 40 miles south of the town north of us.

There are NOT alternate routes!!!

As for cities, I've been with friends/family while they are relying on Google or whatever navigation stuff they use, while I'm trying to give them knowledgeable directions -- and they tell me to shut up while Google takes them the "shortest" route -- right through the crime-infested ghetto!!!!

No, thanks.

@sandyf wrote:

I am in the same tech boat as you are but I did notice that when driving around the city with my daughter having her app set to fastest route or best route we went thru a lot of alleys and twists and turns that were unnecessary to get somewhere that was 20 seconds faster than picking the slower route that was straightforward. It was definitely not worth all those bumps and turns to save only 20 seconds or even a minute or two. The computer brain has a very different idea of best route than i do. So maybe try to change your choice of route if you find them sending you on terrible or non existent roads.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Call me old-fashioned (and laugh, if you will), but those gol-durned apps and maps on computers and phones will send you 20 miles on a gravel road, or through a cow pasture where no road exists at all, out here in rural Nebraska.

I use paper maps. Preferably the free ones provided by each state's department of roads.

(Go ahead and laugh; I won't mind.)

I only left part of your quote but even in a city where I live right there and know the first 10 miles of the route by heart,I will be sent weird ways. And often into a short driveway that leads to a locked gate with a road going thru a housing development for residents only. Not a cow pasture but I would have to crash thru that gate like they do in the movies.
My biggest issue is the schedulers who think i can get 10 miles as the crow flies and still in the same big city in 10 minutes when the actual trip is 20 miles as I am not a crow and traffic means I can travel 14 mph.
It seems like the best answer is to travel the long highways from the paper map or knowledge of the area and only use whatever app you have when you get to the city limits to find how to get to the exact address.

It ends in a cow pasture, 40 miles south of the town north of us.

There are NOT alternate routes!!!

As for cities, I've been with friends/family while they are relying on Google or whatever navigation stuff they use, while I'm trying to give them knowledgeable directions -- and they tell me to shut up while Google takes them the "shortest" route -- right through the crime-infested ghetto!!!!

No, thanks.

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