Max Chen's Mayors' Ride Map Progress

Here is an email from Max Chen that details the latest on his awesome Mayors' Ride mapping project at http://www.oilycog.com/nbg/map.htm
. Soon we will be running it at NationalBicycleGreenway.com !!

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Rcvd 12/12/05 from Max Chen:

http://www.adventurecycling.com/routes/network.cfm

hey Grey, check out the above link when you can. I'd
like the initial map as clean as this one. Just dots
for the cities instead of flags with shadows.

I tried using the smaller icons but until a certain
zoom level, it is still too crowded.
(www.oilycog.com/nbg/map.htm)

There will be no route finding for this project. Only
five lines. Each of the five legs should have a
distinct color. All the lines should start kind of
dimmed/transluscent and as the portions are completed,
the lines should turn vibrant/solid.
This should be done automatically, so each city will
need an associated date and the website should always
know today's date.

I noticed the bugs you mentioned. sometimes the
markers stay visible but the lines vanish in the 2nd
to closest and closest zoom. I noticed it more in the
areas where there are few polyline points or there are
no nearby points.

I updated the balloon contents for Arcata, SF,
Berkeley. I put in a temporary date, a link to
Martin's old data, and the contact info for city hall.
(at least for Arcata I did) I also noticed I'm
missing some cities like Morgantown and Folsom.
It would be nice if the "details" link was more
prominent - like a real button. And it openned a new
window.

I think the west coast route outside the Bay Area is
well documented with Adventure Cycling's maps.
Basically above Arcata and below Monterey, follow PCH.
As for the East Coast, I have no information.
Between DC and Indianapolis, I'll fill in the data
points later this week. Maybe different data sets for
different zoom levels is not so important. The load
time hasn't been a noticeable issue for me. We'll
see.

As for general navigation, I like how any nondrag
click zooms in, unless clicked on a city.

That's pretty much it for now. except as we tie
Martin's existing site to the map, I have some basic
design continuity issues.

-Max