RouteSlip.com Updates

It’s been more than a week since I began promoting the site, and I was blown away by the response I received! I was truly flattered to hear the many people’s positive feedback on the site. Even better, many people took advantage of the “Feature Request” option on the site and let me know what they think the site still needs. RouteSlip.com is still in “beta” — meaning that many more features are on the way, and, unfortunately, is not 100% bug free (more on that later).

I’ll send out these emails when I think there’s a change to the site that you want to know about (based on the emails I receive). I’ll try to keep these emails to a minimum so as not to abuse the trust you’ve granted by opting to stay informed on the progress of the site. Occasionally, I may also send a request for your feedback on particular planned functions for the site.

So without further ado, I wanted to give you a glimpse into what I’ve been hearing from the RouteSlip.com community. (this will probably be a shorter list in the future)

Recent Enhancements

1. Default center on your location — Several people requested that I center the maps on their location. I had this on my to-do list already, but bumped it up after the requests came in. Incidentally, I center the map based on the city and state that you entered when registering. If you want to change this, you can edit your profile from your “My Routes” page.
2. Update User Profiles — As mentioned, on your “My Routes” page, you can now update the profile you created when registering. Your user profile today has pretty basic information. Later, you may have the opportunity to include more information about your riding preferences, etc, to make your experience at RouteSlip.com even better. All information in your profile is and will be private (except username), and any additional information I add in the future will be strictly optional.
3. Find Routes: Sort by State — When it was just me and a handful of pre-beta testers, the original Find Routes page was fine. As soon as word got out, however, I (and others) realized that it was hardly usable. Now, routes are categorized by state first, then city. You may notice that the route counts on the state and city pages don’t add up. That’s because I show the number of routes that go through a particular city — and a given route likely goes through multiple cities.
4. Deleting Routes — A heavily requested feature (just behind editing routes) was deleting routes. Now you can. On your “My Routes” page, move your mouse over the name of the route and click the trash can icon to delete the route.
5. New Technical Discussion forum. Click the “Technical Discussion” link at the bottom of the page to ask technical questions about the site.

Pending Feature Requests (in rough order of the number of requests)

1. Editing Routes, Save Routes in Progress — Alright, already! I received more emails about this one missing feature than anything else. Initially I was hesitant because it’s not a trivial enhancement, but it seems to be what everyone wants to see. Seems reasonable
2. Include cumulative distances on routeslips and the route map.
3. Include accumulated climb information for the route.
4. Start/End points on the route.
5. Ability to print your route, routeslip, and elevation profile together.
6. Include metric measurements (kilometers, meters).
7. Add “End at” and “Regroup” options to the point information window.
8. Route Search by route characteristics.
9. Add points of interest to the route (water stops, regroup points, bathrooms, etc)
10. “Back from [Point X]” — Instead of the existing “out and back” functionality, include a feature to return to the start of the ride from a given point on the route.
11. Visual representation of routes on a map.
12. List routes by area (e.g. San Francisco Bay Area) instead of (or in addition to) by city.
13. Enlarge the map size.
14. Driving directions to the ride start.

Bug Fixes

1. Elevation service back online (not really my fix, but it impacted the site)
2. Incorrect route counts on the state and city pages. (fixed a bug, but please see the note above about the route counts)
3. “Other cities” not saved correctly (fixed on routes already created as well)
4. Routeslip reversed printing on the printer-friendly version of the routeslip

Open Bugs (bad news… sorry)

1. Occasional route saving problems with some browsers (largely fixed, but still occasional reports)
2. Performance problems when creating large routes (50+ miles)
3. “save route” form validation error (occasional problem with some users)
4. “Out and Back” return directions are incorrect.

Hi. My name is Ryan. I live in Irvine and am a relatively newly established biking enthusiast. I wanted to let you and your club know about a new site that I think you and your users would really like.

I launched RouteSlip.com (www.routeslip.com) at the end of 2005 because I wanted a way to keep track of the rides that I do on weekends, etc. After a trial launch period, I’m ready to announce RouteSlip.com’s availability to the world!

Here’s a list of some of the highlights that you’ll find at RouteSlip.com:

1. Interactive road maps of your area (maps provided by Google Maps!)
2. Easily create your own custom routes on the map, including turn-by-turn directions.
3. Print routeslips for your rides based on your route.
4. View elevation information for your route, including an elevation profile.
5. Save your routes to your personal RouteSlip.com page.
6. View routes created by other users or find routes by city.
7. Rate your routes as well as those created by other users. Highest rated routes are featured on the homepage.

Registration on the site is free, and no registration is required to view routes created by other users.

This site has been a labor of love for the last 6 months and I’m really excited to get other people involved in using it. I have a lot more planned for the site in the future!

Check out the site when you have some time and let me know what you think. Pass it on to any cycling friends that you think might be interested.