Multi point route planner

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Thu 30 Jul 2009 17:23
Multi point route planner - BobbyG
Can anyone point me in the direction of an on-line route planner that I can put in a starting point, 13 stop off points, a finishing point and it works out the quickest route?
Any ones I have tried want me to decide the order of the stop off points but I want the planner to tell me the quickest route if that makes sense?

Cheers
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 17:48
Multi point route planner - Altea Ego
Unless the stop off point is the start point (ie its a circular route) you use a map and a ruler.
Ruler on start point and end point, and then the stop off point order becomes clearer.

What you are after is route management software,


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 17:59
Multi point route planner - BobbyG
Yes start point and stop point is the same.

Leave my work, visit 13 points and return. In the quickest order.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 20:42
Multi point route planner - Martin Devon
That's a lot of Pubs!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 20:55
Multi point route planner - Alby Back
At a bit of a tangent to your original question Bobby but are you thinking of relatively local visits or further afield ? Only reason I ask is that as someone who has occasion to visit multi destinations in the course of a days work I tend to favour going to the furthest point first and working my way back. Might be just me but I prefer to drive the long distance early in the day when fresh and the shortest at the end when less so.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 21:09
Multi point route planner - bintang
Nearest I know is AA Route Planner. It lets you insert waypoints but probably not as many as 17. It will give you A to B by the shortest route but, before you leave the website, will let you have B to A without a separate entry. You would then have to work out the rest from there but it should not take you long to type up a circular route from the printouts. But surely transport managers and the like have commercial prgrammes for this sort of thing?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 21:14
Multi point route planner - ifithelps
Fun though it might be to get the computer to spew out a route, I'd have thought settling down for 20 minutes with a cup of tea, a decent map, and pencil and paper would do the trick.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 21:42
Multi point route planner - BobbyG
Humph, its just local, 13 shops all in the Glasgow area as far as Kirkintilloch.
Have to visit them all in one day with a colleague and we were having a light hearted "argument" over what total miles and time it will take and what the best route would be.

I pretty much know, or think I do, the best altenatives but would have been fun to see if I was right!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 21:32
Multi point route planner - gmac
Google Maps

no idea why you put ** instead of oo?

Edited by Webmaster on 31/07/2009 at 01:51

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 21:47
Multi point route planner - Manatee
gmac suggests Google maps - I have done this sort of thing with Google maps. It's still trial and error, but you can in effect put as many intermediate stops as you like in, by just clicking the route and dragging it.

I appreciate that it won't do what you want, i.e. tell you what order to do the visits in, but it does make it easy to compare alternatives.

Edited by Manatee on 30/07/2009 at 21:48

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 22:27
Multi point route planner - rtj70
AutoRoute will have a go at optimising stops but to solve this the algorithm used is not the best.

If you email me the post codes I could try AutoRoute for you.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 23:48
Multi point route planner - BobbyG
Cheers for the offer Rob but it really was just to settle a bet /win an argument when I thought there were possible web sites to do it from.

No need for anyone else to do all the spadework - thanks again
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 22:41
Multi point route planner - jbif
direction of an on-line route planner that I can put in a starting point, 13 stop off points, a finishing point >>


I don't know if it will work, but try www.bing.com/maps/ [old name was microsoft's maps.live.com].

1. Right click on the map to centre and zoom to street level of interest.
2. right click to add push-pins at all your stopover points.
3. in your push-pins collections editor, right click on your start point "drive from here" and similarly set your point to "drive to here".
4. right clcik on other collections to "add to your trip".

Then it will probably get you around Glasgow by going via Edinburgh and London first!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 30 Jul 2009 23:53
Multi point route planner - BobbyG
jbif thanks for suggestion, tried it with a couple of shops but it seems to just take them in the order you added them if that makes sense!

Anyway thanks to all for their suggestions, tomorrow is Friday so no doubt another man challenge will rear its head!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 09:48
Multi point route planner - Cliff Pope
I found this useful feature on Google maps by accident, when I put in start and finish points but it insisted on indicating a rather long-winded route. I overcame it by forcing it to go via an arbitrary intermediate point, closer to what instinct said was a more sensible route.

It certainly didn't tell me to double back to the extra point - it altered the original route and inserted it at the appropriate point.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 12:46
Multi point route planner - pmh3
This problem is a well known mathematical 'puzzle' , the 'travelling salesman problem' for which there is no currently known algorithm to provide an exact answer. For small numbers it is possible to analyse all possible solutions, and applying some logic it is possible to get a 'correct' solution fairly rapidly.

Google ' travelling salesman problem' for a comprehensive answer.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 14:17
Multi point route planner - KB.
Not really the answer to the question but the Snooper S600 Syrius Plus does what you're asking.....it's not an online solution though. I've been using Snooper for a while now and find it good for me.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 14:24
Multi point route planner - Mapmaker
pmh, just crying out for a Montecarlo approach I should think.


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 16:01
Multi point route planner - pmh3
For anybody who has further interest,

www.adit.co.uk/html/travelling_salesman.html

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 16:22
Multi point route planner - Altea Ego
This is a real world problem for multidrop/pickup transport operations, trying to get maximum drops per shift, with minimum transport costs.


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 16:24
Multi point route planner - rtj70
Looked at how a neural network could more efficiently solve the Travelling Salesman problem at Uni... Lyapunov functions involved if I remember right. They were used in some neural net for sure.

Edited by rtj70 on 31/07/2009 at 16:24

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 18:38
Multi point route planner - drbe
>>>> www.adit.co.uk/html/travelling_salesman.html


Why does a British based company (albeit Welsh) use the word alternate, when they presumably mean alternative?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 22:32
Multi point route planner - Altea Ego
because its perfectly acceptable and understandable english.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 22:49
Multi point route planner - jbif
Why does a British based company (albeit Welsh) use the word alternate, >>


... because they are computer geeks, and as they are loosers[sic] they can't spell.
That also explains why software is full of bugs.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 22:51
Multi point route planner - Altea Ego
when are you guys going to understand that "english" is now a universal language, and out of your control?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 31 Jul 2009 23:09
Multi point route planner - jbif
when are you guys going to understand that "english" is now a universal language, and out of your control? >>


Altea: relax. Only having a larf. ;-) You should know by now that this site is the home of Gerry Atrics and others of the same average age who speak in the same tone as Queen Lizard Breath. Hence they do not know that the majority of British people do not speak or write Ye Olde English, and that the majority of the people of the world learns their "favorite" language using Bill Gates' products. Microsoft is the "center" of the Universe.

p.s. I just had a crunchy Blackberry and Apple pie for pudding.

Edited by jbif on 31/07/2009 at 23:11

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Mon 25 Feb 2013 14:07
Multi point route planner - speedyroute

We have developed a multi-drop routing website, currently available at www.speedyroute.co.uk

The website is currently still under development / in the beta testing stage, and is currently free for *any* number of destinations. Enter your start/stop location, and any number of locations to visit, and the website will re-order the locations to provide the optimal route, visiting all the locations in the shortest time and distance, and also provides driving directions. Please take a look, and forward any suggestions about the website to info@speedyroute.co.uk

Regards,

Nick Talbot

Speedy Route

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

We give you the low down on how to save on insurance, little-known tricks and tips, what insurance groups mean and how to use insurance aggregators to beat insurers.

Insurance group finder and how to save on insurance