Kieran Healy

MapBlast’s Linedrive

Via Karlo.org, I found out about MapBlast’s new way of mapping driving directions. If you’ve ever used MapQuest or some similar service, you’ll know the software spits out a street map with your route highlighted together with a table telling you where to turn and how far to drive along each segment of the route. MapBlast effectively combines these pieces of information by creating a vector diagram of the route. The relative scale of each leg is not built into the map scale, but is provided as a number on each segment. The principle is similar to the map of the London Underground, which presents a stylized picture of the geography in order to focus the rider’s attention on what’s important: the relations between the nodes (the tube stations). The same thing is true of the LineDrive maps. What matters are the decision points—- where to turn, and which way—- and the vector diagram captures these very nicely.

Yup, I like that feature as well. I wouldn’t call it “new” per se as they’ve had it for a few years, but I guess still relatively few people know about it. One disadvantage: if you don’t like their optimal way then you don’t have the rest of the map to go on. But of course getting the full map is also an option.

It’s so hard to tell who knows about what online services already… (I suspect you’re not mentioning certain things because you’ve known about them for years and think everyone else does as well..)

I wouldn’t call it “new” per se as they’ve had it for a few years

Um, I guess that would be a good reason not to call it new. I’m obviously quite far behind…