A website showing the best route when walking or cycling between any two points in Wellington, and how long it should take, will go live this morning.

Journeyplanner.org.nz was funded by the Greater Wellington regional council to coincide with World Carfree Day tomorrow, and built by local developer ProjectX.

The website shows how steep routes are and how many calories people are likely to burn.

Little-known tracks and short cuts are included and toilets, drinking fountains and public seating are marked.

"You just type in your starting point and destination and all the navigation is done for you. If you want to make a diversion, it highlights the new route for you and gives you directions," says council chair Fran Wilde.

At present, the planner does not take into account whether journeys are uphill or downhill when estimating journey times. Spokesman Simon Kennett says the council contributed about $70,000.

http://www.journeyplanner.org.nz/

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digit ... ing-routes

Chucked in a couple of trips - finds the little shortcuts

I just spotted this on Stuff

Nice, they must have a good database of what's walkable/cyclable and not - I got it to plan a trip from my street across the Hutt river and it directs me correctly through the kindy carpark on to the stopbank, and across the walking path on the rail bridge.
Over the river.

Nice work Simon - looking forward to seeing how much carbon my trip offsets.

Really cool - I want one for Christchurch now.

Kinda cool little toy but has its flaws...

Cycling route for me from Hiropi St in Newtown to Broderick Road in J'Ville just picks the shortest route which also happens to be the busiest / most sets of lights. My normal route is to pop over to Evans Bay and go around the bays which although being 4km longer is often quicker and a darn sight more relaxing.



1. 0.2 km Head North on Hiropi Street towards Constable Street
2. 0.5 km Turn left and go down Constable Street
3. 1.3 km Turn right at Riddiford Street
4. 45 m Slight left at Rugby Street
5. 0.1 km Slight left at Rugby Street
6. 98 m Turn right at Tasman Street
7. 0.6 km Continue on Tory Street
8. 0.2 km Turn left at Courtenay Place
9. 0.2 km Turn right at Taranaki Street
10. 0.7 km Turn left at Jervois Quay
11. 0.2 km Slight right at Customhouse Quay
12. 0.2 km Continue on Waterloo Quay
13. 79 m Turn left at Bunny Street
14. 1.6 km Turn right at Thorndon Quay
15. 3.0 km Slight right at Hutt Road
16. 2.6 km Slight left at Ngauranga Gorge Road
17. 0.2 km Continue on Johnsonville Road
18. 0.2 km Continue on Johnsonville Road
19. 0.2 km Turn left at Broderick Road

Funny thing is that even when I tried to set a start point of Evans Bay Parade, it still didn't want me to take a nice ride or walk around the waterfront. It now wanted me to go through smelly Mt Vic tunnel.

Nice start anyways and could be useful for people who are new to town.

I believe there are still a few details (possibly like that?) to be worked through, but it's a pretty good start I reckon!

appears you can drag part of it around (the big red B)and it will alter the route to take you past that point.

Couple of things about the route selection...

The journey planner will select the flatter route if it is only a wee bit longer than a similar hilly route. 4km is a lot longer for a commuter - different story for a fit sports cyclist. At the moment the elevation data for the roads round the bays is pretty rough. We're using spots heights from a 20m grid. Usually the road runs between the points on the grid, so the road height is estimated by taking the average of the nearest four points. Where roads run alongside coastal escarpments, the journey planner tends to overestimate how hilly the route is. We hope to utilise better altitude data in the future.

If you want to take a quieter (possibly longer) route, then click on the map and drag your route there to see how long or hilly the alternative is. If you're not sure if it's quiet, best bet is to click onto hybrid map view and see how many cars are on the road - that's the best option for now. If you zoom in very close you will see where there are traffic lights (if you want to avoid those too).

The most 'beautiful route' ( ) is in the eye of the beholder. If you have a favourite way from A to B, you can click and drag to show it on the journey planner and then share it by emailing to friends or posting the link on a site.

For example, here's my preferred route home when I feel like a gentle half hour cruise - http://www.journeyplanner.org.nz/?x=174.778079&y=-41.290548&a=146+wakefield+street,+te+aro,+wellington,+6011&v=f&x1=174.780228&y1=-41.290214&a1=&v1=t&x2=174.780016&y2=-41.288355&a2=&v2=t&x3=174.779391&y3=-41.285288&a3=&v3=t&x4=174.774284&y4=-41.262194&a4=1+cecil+road,+wadestown+-+wilton&v4=f&x5=174.764156&y5=-41.269678&a5=&v5=t&x6=174.756571&y6=-41.278765&a6=lambeth+road,+northland,+wellington,+6012&v6=f&mode=cycling

We've been gradually tweaking the data on the http://www.journeyplanner.org.nz over the last couple of months. Shouldn't be sending cyclists down any flights of steps any more (but please let me know if something has slipped through).

For new users there is now a pop-up window which gives a 2 minute intro to using the site - very handy for those who are unfamiliar with Googlemaps.

Over the summer, there's an incentive to give the journey planner a try - design a sweet trip and enter the draw to win a voucher, for free. Vouchers include book tokens, cafe vouchers, bike service vouchers, Te Papa exhibit tickets, Bowlarama, etc. Check it out at http://blog.activea2b.org.nz/2009/11/sweet-summer-journeys-competition/#more-48

Bump!

The Sweet Summer Journey Competition at http://blog.activea2b.org.nz/2009/11/sweet-summer-journeys-competition/#more-48
is not getting a lot of entries (everyone's on holiday, I guess). That means that those who do enter have a very, very, very good chance of winning.

going from adelaide road to cambridge/kent terrace or vice versa sends you round the basin on the roads. the cycle lane goes through the gates and around the cricket pitch, which is shorter, flatter and a lot safer than using the road. just a minor thing but I thought I'd point it out.

Yep. We're onto that one. It's taken a couple of iterations to nail down the problem, but I'm confident it's fixed now. Just waiting for the next data build to upload the fix.

The Basin Reserve and Karo Drive cycle path issues are fixed.

And the Sweet Summer Journey prize draw is still going. Winning a voucher is pretty easy. Just log onto http://www.journeyplanner.org.nz/ then design a nice trip, click on feeback to send it to us with a sentence or two about why you like that ride. Simple, free, fun.