Software: the perfect routing/mapping app for group rides?

[Austin David]

I was gonna ask about a "better" app for planning rides, but it got away from me and I just made something.  Vibecoded, anyway.

 

The app itself is just planning; actual turn-by-turn routing is Maps or Beeline (or anything that can use GPX export).

 

Who wants to help me test and share feedback?  The concept is a fairly straightforward maps (Google maps) experience to add a series of waypoints to build a long route.  Once the route is set up, it can be shared, edited, or navigated.  Smaller routes (<10 waypoints) can go straight into Google Maps.  Each leg from here -> Waypoint can be navigated (click -> send to maps).  The whole route can be exported, then imported into Beeline or anything that reads GPX.  For Beeline it's a few clicks to create a new ride from the export.

 

Mobile experience is the same, works surprisingly well on a handset.

 

The sample route below should be viewable here: https://route7-prod.web.app/route/Bj6Gm4GZKw3U

 

Message me a gmail address and I can whitelist for editing.

 

[Austin David]

https://route7.austindavid.com/ is open and free to use.  Cost-modeling says "always free" but usage will help tell if we approach any API usage above the free tier.

[demoray]

Very cool.

 

I put a quick route from near home to a place that has cheap burger specials.  This looks pretty straight forward to use. 

 

If it's vibe coded, care to share it on GitHub?  I'm looking to do something related.
 

I'm looking to build the other side of this, an app that shows the turn by turn akin to BeeLine that runs on Google Watch that supports GPX.

 

Can users see other people's public routes?

 

Can users import routes from other sources?

[Austin David]

Can users see other people's public routes?

 

Not implemented.  I haven't spent much time on this feature, other than the distinction between "public" and "unlisted".  Right now there's no exposure or search for the "public" ones.  The primary use-case is "past a link in the forum", which works for both public and unlisted routes.

 

How would you expect "discovery" to work?  search, browse, pins-on-map ?  (any of those should be ~easy)

 

Can users import routes from other sources?

 

Not yet... how would it work?  GPX-style import should be super easy, at least for coarse GPX without a lot of waypoints.  If you have an idea or application in mind, happy to discuss.

 

re: vibecoded: it's currently private, I'm tryin to decide what to do about it.  Are you thinking to make a Beeline-like WatchOS app with turn-by-turn?  

Gemini says:
Because it's a Google platform, Google Maps is deeply integrated into Wear OS right out of the box and gives you full turn-by-turn navigation, including a live, interactive map view on your wrist, standard text directions, and haptic turn alerts. It also works fully standalone if you have a LTE/cellular model.

 

I assume you want to simplify the experience somehow, with more like the Beeline arrow and a distance to next turn?

[demoray]

I'm looking to have the beeline like experience on my watch.   Maps has an arrow mode, which I've used, but I've not had good success importing GPX files with Google Maps in the past.

[Austin David]

Try just making a route with route7 and (I assume on your phone) click "Navigate full route".  That sends the first 10 waypoints directly to Maps, just a big 10-point URL.  Maps will automatically route turn-by-turn to the first waypoint, and when you get there it starts to the next.  I did it yesterday with Android Auto, it was surprisingly easy.  

 

Exporting GPX & importing to Beeline is like 13 clicks total.  Also very easy, but not quite as easy as the one-click Maps kickoff.

 

 

Edited May 25 by Austin David
the video

[Austin David]

@JohnCh and I have been chatting a little about a "find along route" style feature.  I've got a proposal I'd like to share, in case anyone has any thoughts.  I've added followup below for why "find along route" is not easy.

 

(note the following is AI-generated, but with a lot of guidance)

 

Here's the experience from the rider's side — what they see and do, start to finish.

The setup

You're in the route editor, building a ride. The map fills most of the screen; your waypoints sit on it as numbered, draggable pins. In one corner of the map there's a single small icon — a pin+ button. That's the entire footprint when you're not using it. No panel, no sidebar row, nothing competing for space.

Finding stuff

You pan and zoom the map to frame a stretch you care about — say a section of road where you'll want a coffee stop. Nothing happens as you scroll — no searches fire, no spinner, no cost. The map is just a map until you ask it for something.

You tap the pin+ icon. It expands in place into a short row of category chips: Fuel · Food · Coffee · View. Still nothing's been searched.

You tap Coffee. Now one search fires, scoped to exactly what's framed on screen. A handful of results (~6) drop onto the map as a visually distinct pin layer — a different color/shape from your route waypoints and from the curated nearby-places pins, so it reads instantly as "candidates, not yet in your route." Alongside the pins, the control shows a compact list: each result's name, star rating, and rough distance from the center of your view.

Importing one

You tap a result — either its row in the list or its pin on the map. A small info card opens with the name, rating, and one primary button: "+ Add as waypoint."

You tap it. The place becomes a new numbered waypoint in your route, instantly — the route re-routes through it, the new draggable pin appears, and that candidate pin disappears from the provisional layer (so you can't accidentally add it twice). The waypoint inherits the place's name as its label.

Adding more, or backing out

• Want a fuel stop too? Tap another candidate → "+ Add." One tap each.
• Want different results? Tap another chip, or re-frame and search again — the old candidates clear and the new set drops in.
• Done exploring? Collapse the control (tap the icon). All the candidate pins vanish and the map returns to its clean baseline — just your route and that one small icon again.

The feel of it

The whole thing is invisible until you reach for it, and gone the moment you're done. It never searches on its own, never writes anything to your saved route until you explicitly add a waypoint, and never clutters the screen with results you didn't ask for. The motion is: frame → tap category → tap result → it's a stop. Three taps to the first one, one tap for each after.

A couple of honest edge cases

• If the map hasn't settled (no bounds yet), tapping a chip just says "pan the map first" instead of firing a useless search.
• If your route's already at the waypoint cap, the "+ Add" button shows disabled with a "route full" note rather than silently failing.
• "View" maps to Google's tourist_attraction category, which is a bit coarse — it can surface a museum where you wanted a scenic pullout. That's a known imprecision, called out as an open decision (accept it, or curate the category list).

-----

 

Why "find along route" is hard:

- the various Google APIs are not free, but there is a $200/mo credit.  "search for a place" is the single most expensive request

- "Search for a place" can return only 60 things at at time.  For a long route "all the places within a mile of the planned path" is a lot more than 60

- there is no API for "be smart about what you find".  You can search for "gas stations" but only in a radius; finding "all the gas stations along a route" is a lot of searches

- Google Maps has some magic and their own free-to-use stuff built in, and it works pretty well: "navigate A->B" + "find gas along the route" is a lot smarter than what is publicly available to a service like route 7.

- I *have* implemented 'stuff close to a waypoint' -- it's a lot easier to use.  Give it a shot, tell me what you think.  I use it by dropping a pin near where I think there is stuff (ie a town), then search for fuel or whatever, review the results.  It's not "anywhere along route", but it is straightforward to use.  As editor you can trim results (hiding mcdonald's or sus gas stops, for instance).  The remaining hits show up alongside your chosen waypoint.  There's discussion about a "make this a waypoint" feature, not yet added.