Thread

1. rsynnott · 1786042389 · focus · HN ↗

   Adding “running” to the list of things that Google engineers apparently don’t do.

   Where it joins “walking”. Google Maps will suggest almost arbitrarily bonkers public transport directions to avoid walking. Personal favourite: the sensible way to get from my house to work, unless the weather is terrible, is six minutes on a train and a 15 min walk. Google Maps would, generally, prefer that I spend 15 mins on the train going mostly the wrong direction and 15 minutes on a tram, then a five minute walk. It will also contemplate a ten minute walk, ten minutes walking being within the threshold Google deems physically possible, plus an arbitrary amount of time on a rather slow bus. Apple Maps and Transit are better at this.

   1. NoDodgeQuestion · 1786042928 · focus · HN ↗

      At risk of summoning an army of vibe coders, I wish map apps were more configurable and let you set "I'm happy to walk 20 min" or "someone can drive me a few miles and drop me off"

      1. eli · 1786044630 · focus · HN ↗

         It's not exactly what you asked for, but the public transit and multimodal focused apps are generally much better at this stuff. I like CityMapper and Transit.

         Neither is good for turn-by-turn directions, but both are good for "what are all the different ways to get there"

      2. jazzyjackson · 1786047181 · focus · HN ↗

         Not to mention “public transit but with a waypoint” which is too advanced for all mobile apps
      3. pavel_lishin · 1786047662 · focus · HN ↗

         I wish I could add certain streets and routes to some sort of block list.

         There are certain roads I would be willing to spend an extra 10-30 minutes driving to avoid. (And certainly would not get on them on a bike!)

      4. leksak · 1786056409 · focus · HN ↗

         The public transport app in my city almost does this well, it even affords cycling. But it isn’t quite as nuanced as one would like.
      5. ShinyLeftPad · 1786057518 · focus · HN ↗

         Here's a tip if you use google maps: if you want to get from A to B but can walk a bit, just pick a point C between them then look up directions to and from point C separately. Works great

         1. dullcrisp · 1786059354 · focus · HN ↗

            Pro-tip: if you want to get from A to B without using Google Maps, simply pick a sequence of intermediate points A = a_0, …, a_n = B where each pair of consecutive points aren’t too far apart, and then travel to each point in turn.
      6. urineaut · 1786058572 · focus · HN ↗

         Depending on where you live there is Transitous: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;transitous.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;transitous.org&#x2F;

         It&#x27;s a FOSS public transport routing engine. In the options you can select what type and how much time you want to spend on the first and last &quot;mile&quot; (even something like bike&#x2F;scooter sharing).

         It uses open data or data connectors for the routing. And being FOSS, if there is no data connector yet for you region, it may be interesting to contribute one if there is a sane way to query the data from the local transport compan(y|ies).

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