Now that gas has shot up, I was wondering if there are any free route planning utilities?

mapsonus.com used to have a nice free route planner that allowed you to select a start & end points, enter a number of intermediary stops in between then it would plan the shortest or fastest route for you. I hadn't used it a long time and just discovered that it no longer has those options. Does anyone know of a similiar available program or site?


TIA

Not exactly, except AAA members can get maps with the route highlighted on them. Also, some states transportation departments on the internet will show where there are construction projects being done and for how long.

Yahoo???

I mean they're thorough....If I didn't know how to get to DS's place...

Start at 555 MY ST, MY TOWN going toward 5TH ST - go 0.3 mi
2. Turn on W 1ST ST - go 0.1 mi
3. Turn on N HIS ST - go 0.1 mi
4. Arrive at 111 N HIS ST, BENNETT, on the L

But that's not the quickest way, because of all the stop signs...better to go a block west and hit the highway...

http://local.live.com has traffic information on the map itself.

//krunk (^_^x)

What I'm looking for it like what mapsonus used to feature:
you enter a starting and end point. You could also enter a number of different intermediate stops. Then the site figured out the most gas effective route of all of the stops and directions.

Microsoft's Maps & Streets program does this, but it's not online, nor is it free.

Rand McNally

It's not exactly what you're looking for, but this is what the website says it does:

mapquest (and, I assume, Google Maps) will plan out a route with multiple stops, but you do have to tell it what order to do them in. However, they'll display them all on a map so you can see where they are in relation to each other..

Google had a beta like that, but was resource intense and I turned it off. Now I can't find it anymore, may not be offered anymore.

Are you referring to Google Earth??

I remember years ago there were a few sites that would give you different directions from the same starting & end points. You could specify hwy or city streets, fastest route, least miles, etc. Today's map/direction sites basically give you one set of directions and it can be difficult to plot multiple locations in between.

Personally I haven't used Mapquest for a long time. Too many times it gave me wrong directions. I've been using Google Maps lately just to get the location and I plan my own route based on the streets I need to take. The directions don't take into account volume of traffic, number of traffic lights, road contruction, tolls, etc.

Yup, I remember when map websites were as you described.

I never liked MapQuest. I always used MapBlast because MapQuest gave funky directions just to get down the hill that I live on... using streets that you're not even allowed to drive on. But then MapBlast was acquired by MS and they totally changed everything.

I mainly use Google Maps now too.

It also allows you to enter gas prices and the fuel efficiency of your vehicle to help calculate gas costs...I love that feature...