Yeah, the drawing on Google isn't ideal at all. Today I tried drawing some routes in the burbs after a long absence, and I can't figure out how to continue (add to, pick up, extend) a previously drawn route. It used to be an option when you clicked (or right clicked?) on the terminal of a polyline.

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Yes, I agree that wiki is the way to go as well. Take the Pittsburgh Bike route map (online/Google Maps API), which is kinda cool, but there are so many smaller communities across the country that don't have the resources to hire a web firm to put that together. Here we've essentially done that for free.

But here we're still doing everything manually, which is somewhat tedious and requires coordination -- wiki in spirit, not by design. And I think what we've done is useful, but somewhat temporary and not easily portable.

I've been toying with the idea of whipping up a web app in Rails or PHP to handle the placemark info, and I think it could be useful, but routing is much more complex (although it looks like you've gotten a handle on it). Formalizing the process in programming, like a quality-controlling Wikipedia for bike maps could give any town or community the ability to make their own bike maps.

If you'd like to bounce ideas, get in touch either on here or by email.

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The wrench is better.

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Short answer is no, not necessary, I think.

I ran into that data limit a lot with Arlington, so Arlington's route data (not including F.C., Alex., or info placemarks) is divided into four (My) Maps. One for trails, two for official on-street routes, and one for suggestions. I'm actually surprised our D.C. map hasn't hit the limit yet, and my theory is that so many of D.C.'s streets (especially bike lanes) are straight, so there are less data. (Only two coordinate pairs for a straight line versus a long list of coordinate pairs for a winding road.)

So, I'm assuming that if we draw in trails (which meander -- many coordinate pairs) on the same map, we will hit that limit fast. So I'd say keep putting trails (even minor, unnamed) in the various/cardinal trail maps for now (but keep the small ones skinny to 2 pixels or so).

Ive just adjusted the D.C. mapplet to overlay the DC mashup map (mostly on-street routes) with the various trail maps we have (NW, NE, So, We). It looks quite usable! But it may take some time (hours? days?) for Google server and browser caches to cycle in that update. (I set up a mapplet developer manual refresh option.)

We may want to reorganize the cardinal/trail maps in the future, but definitely don't bother redrawing trails we already have. For example, if we want to make a trails map for just D.C., I think it would be easier to compile the KMLs from the cardinal maps and then go down the list and remove non-D.C. trails.

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OK, here's a cool trick.

Go to Flickr, and navigate to all public photos tagged "Mount Vernon Trail" and get the link at the bottom for the GeoFeed (not the KML). It's a long and ugly address that starts with "http://api.flickr" and ends in "format=rss_200" with the tag info somewhere in between (no spaces). Copy that link location and now open up a blank Google Maps and plug that cryptic link in the search field and hit the button. If you got the link correctly, presto all the pics with lat/long are placed on the map, and if you go to the place in the world where the Mount Vernon Trail is located, the pictures will be there along the trail.

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I may have copy/pasted wrong links, or maybe AJAX-y artifacts of previous links. I was in a hurry.

I redid the links and put them on the Mashup Map wikipage. I tested them on my computer, and they seem to work correctly.

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Cool. Is there a simple way to teach us how to create the data? Is this something you could just explain (do we need to have a gathering of the map'kateets to discuss this. I am glad to help but I have never been able to write script and I dont know what KML is.

Yes about the big trails. My thought would be to have maybe a major route map - and the W&OD, and Crescent, and Mt Vernon, and Rock Creek are all represented on this map by a single map line each --- and then the community can click on that line, and that will provide a link to the W&OD map. This would be a map dedicated to the W&OD with lots of route detail - good stopping points, dangerous crossings, hills, shops, first aid.....

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