[Mapserver-users] MapServer, routing/driving directions, TIGER data

[Dana Quinn]

Sorry to propose a non-mapserver solution, but maybe it
would be easier just to use an online map service to do this?
I use yahoo maps to get around all the time - it works
pretty well, and is reasonably fast.  It might be easy
to script up some of the queries to the yahoo map site,
so you don't have to sit in front of your browser, clicking
away.

dana

ew at xmission.com wrote:
> MapServer users:
> 
> I have the following situation, and have some questions about MapServer:
> 
> Ok, so I run a food buying club and I want to make deliveries to the
> customers homes, here in the State of Utah.  I want to find out, before
> going, how many miles it is from my location to their location, and if
> it would be easier to make two or more deliveries in one trip.
> 
> I downloaded the TIGER Line files for Utah, loaded them into a MySQL
> database, and have perl script to quickly (.5 sec) find their lat/long
> based on their street address (with city or zipcode).
> 
> Using basic geometry, I can find the distance between my lat/long and
> their lat/long, but that distance is as the crow flies, not as the car
> drives.
> 
> So, I need to use a router recursive algorithim to find the shortest
> route of TIGER street vectors between the two points to get driving
> directions.  Anyone have a good way to do this?
> 
> Does MapServer offer this functionality through any extensions or
> anything?  Could I do the querying of the lat/long for an address from
> MapServer with the TIGER in shp files, or should I continue having it in
> a MySQL db?  In essence, is MapServer just for drawing maps via a CGI
> interface,  or can it be queried for scalar information from the map
> files it uses?
> 
> It seems to me that this is better done as such:
> 
>   1.  Use TIGER->MySQL information to find driving directions via the
>       street vectors it contains, and to find lat/long of a street
>       addie.
> 
>   2.  Use MapServer to plot the lat/long (once found in step 1) using
>       the same TIGER info (just converted to shp files).
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.  The code I write will be GPL'ed
> once I get it working.
> 
> Eric
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-- 

Dana Quinn, dana at nextbus.com
NextBus Information Systems
(510) 420-3117