Both of these have to do with getting a good elevation record from a route with MapMyRide:
1) Allow a user-selectable maximum distance between points when using "Follow Roads". If this works the way I think it does, then elevation changes on a perfectly straight section of road won't be noted. In particular you won't get a point at the bottom or top of a climb unless the road happens to curve at those points. Or - perhaps less trouble, make "Follow Roads" add a point at any significant elevation change.
2) Bump up the number of significant figures in the CSV output for distance/elevation. As it stands now, the error in distance between 2 consecutive points can be up to 52.8 feet for US units.
I've been trying to back out % grade information from your CSV output, but the results I'm getting are nonsense. If I use Follow Roads only, then a hill that I know to have greater than a 10% grade shows up as about a 3% grade because of #1. If instead I manually click points on that hill, I get wild fluctuations in grade because of the lack of precision in the distance - anywhere from 0% to 26%.
I am new to mapmyride, coming over from routeslip, and I agree that the cumulative elevation gain CEG on MMR seems to be very inadequate. I'm assuming that info is found after choosing "Show Elevation" where for example, on one loop ride I got: max: 2160, min: 137, ascent: 1932, and descent: 2002.
You'll notice that the "ascent" didn't even equal the the Max - Min (2023) which certinly didn't take into account any of the up and down rollers along the way.
On the other hand, routeslip used to look at the difference between every point and calculate the total CEG and the program ran very slowly, and it seemed to somehow overestimate the gain by as much as 15 - 20%.
Accurate elevation information is for my training. If I can't get it here, I'll have to go elsewhere. I like the convenience of the site, but this is really a necessity not a nice to have imho.
The elevation data here are worthless. I've looked at old routes that I created w/ Routeslip, that I've had people w/ a GPS plot, and the MMR numbers aren't even close. The Routeslip data, while not perfect, was MUCH better. Both systems used a Google Maps interface, I'm not sure why MMR didn't incorporate what Routeslip had, after they absorbed it. I still contend that MMR just wanted to eliminate competition and broaden its user base, as I have yet to see any of the elements from Routeslip incorporated here.
Have to agree - one reason I really liked route slip was the elevation element. I sent a note to the powers that be here at MMR about that. They replied they'd pass it along to development and let me. Never heard back from development though!
I'm going to give them a little more time though - I work in software and it's always harder than it seems to "intgrate" features. Hopefully they'll get the elevation stuff in soon though. They fix that and break out the reporting on my calendar by work out type and this will be a killer site.
Elevation is coming soon, you'll be able to access it directly from the route engine and it will be part of printable maps.
Minor Edit: By soon we mean a few days at most :)
Ditto here as well, the main reason (other than being forced) for me to come here is in fact greater speed ... but I loved the cumulative elevation... I could gauge my rides much better. I juts plotted a route (below) but then have no idea how many climbing feet I will have gone... maybe too many (yikes)( http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/mo/ballwin/933445883
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