Travel Roads – Plan Routes With Road Network Optimization

Time and mileage drive up all your costs, so it’s critical to know exactly how many miles and hours it takes to cover all the roads in a specific region. Imagine being able to see the most efficient way to cover all the roads in a region by just drawing a shape over a map. With Route4Me’s Road Network Optimization, the first commercially available software of this kind, you can draw an area of almost any size on a map, and then Route4Me will plan an optimal route for you so that you can cover every section of road in the region in the shortest amount of time.

The Travel Roads feature allows you to plan routes that contain only certain road types and roads within a predefined perimeter. After setting a perimeter around an area, Route4Me route optimization software computes and plans a multi stop route with all the roads that can be traveled within a predefined geographical area taking into account road types, travel modes, speed limitations, and other factors. This feature is useful when your business requires covering all the roads of a certain type within a specific geographical area.

To plan a route using the Travel Roads feature, first, select Plan a Route from the navigation menu.

Then, click X to close the Address Uploading menu.

Hover your mouse cursor over the Travel Roads button at the top of the screen to open the Jump to Location on Map tab.

In the Jump to Location on Map tab, type in the address or the name of the location where you want to plan a route. Use the autocomplete list of addresses for your convenience.

The green dot next to the address indicates that the address is geocoded with high confidence. Use the map to locate the area for planning a route.

1. Adjust the map settings to display the relevant data in the area where you want to plan a route;
2. Click on the Travel Roads button to open the drawing tools.

The drawing tools allow you to draw two types of areas. Select the square icon to draw a proportional rectangular area.

When the square icon is selected, click anywhere on the map and drag your mouse cursor to another point on the map to form a rectangular polygon.

To draw a custom area, select the shape icon.

This drawing tool allows you to create custom areas of any shape. When the shape icon is selected, click on a specific point on the map and continue drawing the area point by point. To finish drawing the polygon, connect the first and the last points.

In the Choose Travel Mode window, fill out the information about the route. In the Name & Schedule tab, type in the name of the route and add the date and time when the route starts.

In the Modes tab, select one or several modes that match the road types that you want to be included into the planned route.

In the Settings tab, adjust the Route Speed Limit in kilometers per hour, Route Maximum Length in kilometers, and Route Max Time in military time. Click OK to continue.

Select the Departure Location by inputting the address or typing in a partial name of the address and selecting one of the auto-suggested options.

Click on the Pick location on map button to select the departure address on the map.

Within the predefined area, select the point on the map that you want to set as the Departure Address. Click OK to finish.

Route4Me calculates the variables, road constraints, speed, and distance limitations of the roads within the drawn area and computes the route that includes all roads that are located within the polygon and fall under the predefined criteria.

Once the route is planned, it is added to your Routes List.