Windows 10: Bing Maps Routing API knows shortest route that visits all waypoints

Brink · Jul 27, 2018

Often referred to as ‘the traveling salesman problem’, planning how to most efficiently travel to a number of stops is an age-old problem. It’s difficult enough to optimize the stops for a single driver or delivery person’s day, and the challenge compounds quickly when trying to optimize routes for a fleet of drivers, your mobile salesforce, or a large team of repair personnel in the field.

A powerful addition to the Bing Maps routing API is now available to help! With waypoint optimization you can pass in up to 25 waypoints (stops) and they will be re-ordered and optimized to minimize travel time or distance.

Let’s look at a real-world use case to better understand the benefits of route optimization. Let’s say you run a delivery business in Kansas City. Your day begins downtown and ends in North Kansas City. Along the way you have 6 stops to make. The Route shown here in the first map was calculated based on the order the stops were passed in. That’s 131 miles and 2 hours 54 minutes of driving. In the second map, we see the result of specifying the ‘optimizeWaypoints=true' flag on the API call. Much better! We just saved 27 miles and 30 minutes of driving.

Before optimization

After optimization

The route optimization performed is based on actual road-distance, which will yield much more accurate results compared to algorithms that cut corners and use simple straight-line ‘crow flies’ distance between stops. Geographic constraints like rivers, lakes and divided highways can really throw these calculations off. Consider the simple route below. The straight-line distance from A to B is less than half a mile. But that body of water sitting between them makes the actual driving distance 2 miles. For enterprise-grade results, you definitely want to avoid any route optimization that use straight-line distance calculations behind the scenes!

Now you’re probably thinking, this is great, but how much is this added functionality going to cost me? Here’s the best news – there is no additional charge for an optimized route! Each API call to the routing service is 1 billable transaction, whether the optimize flag is specified or not. And that includes passing in up to 25 waypoints for optimization. For requirements of more than 25 waypoints, please contact Bing Maps team at L: maplic@microsoft.com.

If you already know which stops a given driver in your fleet is going to make, this new optimization capability can bring big cost and time savings to your organization. But what if you have dozens of drivers needing to make 100 stops? Which stops should be assigned to which drivers to provide each driver with the most efficient itinerary?

The Bing Maps Distance Matrix API is ideal for solving this complex logistics problem. You can use it to compute optimal travel time and distances from all origins to destinations at scale, and then combing with optimization algorithms find the best stops for each driver to make. You can then use the waypoint optimization function to find the best driving directions with turn by turn instructions for each driver’s itinerary.

Learn more about the Distance Matrix API on our website and check out the developer docs. Also, for code samples, go to GitHub.

Note: If you are using the Bing Maps JavaScript control for route calculation, these new optimization parameters are not yet exposed there. We are working on that and will have news here on the blog when it is ready, but for now these route optimization capabilities are only in our REST API.

A great place to get started is with the documentation for the Route API. And this quick tutorial will show you how to create the REST URL optimizing 5 stops along a route.

- Bing Maps Team
Click to expand...

Source: Bing Maps Routing API knows the shortest route that visits all waypoints! | Maps Blog

:)

Brink · Jul 27, 2018

Geocoding and Routing improvements added to Bing Maps

Geocoding and Routing are core services in mapping platforms. Today, the Bing Maps team is happy to announce improved algorithms and increased coverage support for these services, which also directly improve the coverage of many of the new Bing Maps Fleet Management APIs, such as the Isochrone and Distance Matrix APIs which rely on routing data.

Geocoder Improvements

The Bing Maps team has spent several years developing a new backend geocoder, which provides improved matching logic and the ability to make faster data updates. This new geocoder went into production earlier this year, and the Bing Maps developer APIs were seamlessly updated on the backend, thus instantly migrating all users to the new geocoder without any code changes required by them.

In addition to creating a new backend geocoder, the team has been working hard on increasing the support for geocoding globally. Bing Maps ranks the level of geocoding support for each country using the following criteria:

Rooftop – Addresses are resolved to the latitude/longitude coordinate at the center of the address parcel (property boundary). Rooftop has the highest level of accuracy support. Its coverage varies by country.

Address – Addresses are interpolated to a latitude/longitude coordinate on the street.

Street Name – Addresses are resolved to the latitude/longitude coordinate of the street that contains the address. The address number is not processed.

Basic – Geocoding support is limited and primarily only accurate to the city level. If an address is valid, Bing Maps attempts to resolve it, but a result is not guaranteed.

The number of countries in which Bing Maps has Rooftop or Address level detailed coverage has grown from 82 to 109 countries.

Highest Level Support # of Countries Old Coverage New Coverage Rooftop 17 46 Address 65 63 Street Name 12 46 Basic 159 98

Detailed geocoding coverage information can be found here.

Routing Service Improvements

Bing Maps provides routing for the following modes of transportation: cars, trucks, walking and public transit. Bing Maps provides both real-time and predictive traffic based routing. The team is constantly tweaking and improving the algorithms and data to provide more efficient and accurate routes. Bing Maps ranks the level of standard routing support for each country using the following criteria:

Good - The country/region has detailed road data available in most populated centers and most of these have been verified for accuracy. Coverage is updated frequently. Remote areas may lack some road information.

Fair - At a minimum, the country/region has major road data available as well as some detailed road data. Most often, these roads have not been verified for accuracy. Coverage is updated over time. Please visit the map to assess if the current version meets the needs of your application.

Major Roads Only - At a minimum, the country/region coverage includes major roads. These roads have not been verified for accuracy. Coverage is updated over time. Please visit the map to assess if the current version meets the needs of your application.

The number of countries in which Bing Maps has good routing coverage has grown from 58 to 116 countries.

# of Countries Old Coverage New Coverage Good 58 116 Fair 82 54 Major Roads Only 113 83

Detailed routing coverage information can be found here.

Truck Routing

Truck routing support was just recently added to Bing Maps and is supported in 80 countries.

Detailed truck routing coverage information can be found here.

If you have any questions or feedback about Bing Maps, please let us know on the Bing Maps forums or visit the Bing Maps website to learn more about the Bing Maps platform.

- Bing Maps Team
Click to expand...

Source: Geocoding and Routing improvements added to Bing Maps | Maps Blog

bearshare---01 · Jul 27, 2018

Maps (web version) cannot share route with many waypoints

After doing some tests, I verified that the limit of waypoints you can put on routes on Nokia Maps web version, and then succesfully share the map is as follows:

- For Chrome browser, routes can have up to 10 points, including start and end point.

- For Internet Explorer, routes can have up to 15 points, including start and end point.

If you plan a route with more waypoints than the limits above, the "share your route" link simply doesn't work. If you paste the link on a browser, either you get a blank page or you get an error message.

So, here's a pledge to Nokia: please make that work. Routes on Nokia Maps web version can have up to 24 points. So, the "share your route" link should also support routes with 24 waypoints.

Brink · Jul 27, 2018

Bing Maps Distance Matrix API Launches Today

At Microsoft Ignite we announced the Bing Maps Distance Matrix API solution, a service that provides travel time and distances for a set of origins and destinations. Today, we are happy to announce that it is now available!

Looking to develop a solution for a Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) or Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP)? The Bing Maps Distance Matrix API service assists in calculating travel time and distances in many-to-many scenarios with an optional travel-time histogram. The Distance Matrix API can help answer questions as varied as where a commercial bakery should open their next location to optimize daily deliveries or helping a school district select the optimal pick up locations for their fleet of school buses.

How it works

The Bing Maps Distance Matrix API calculates the distances and times based on the routes calculated by the Bing Maps Route API. Times are based on predictive traffic information, depending on the start time specified in the request, and distance matrices are calculated using different modes of transportation, such as driving, walking and public transit routes. This API can also generate an optional histogram of travel times over a period of time with a set interval that takes into consideration the predicted traffic at those times.

Below is a screenshot from our travelling salesman demo, including the travel-time histogram:

Distance matrixes are used in several different types of applications. Some common applications include:

Sorting search results by their actual travel distance or time.

Determining arrival times based on travel times.

Calculating the difference in commute times between locations. For example: We are looking to move to a new office, what is the impact on commute times for our staff?

Calculating a route with traffic data

Using the Bing Maps Distance Matrix API, you can calculate a route using traffic data to determine a distance matrix based on travel time or distance for many scenarios, such as store locators, job search sites, location scoring, and more.

In the first image below, location one is clearly closer than location two visually on a map; however, in calculating time and distance, the second location is actually a shorter distance away and takes less driving time than location one.

Get started

To learn more about developing your distance matrix solution, using the Bing Maps REST Service, view the API documentation. This documentation includes various scenarios in setting up your solution, how each option works, supported methods, how a request is calculated, and more. Coverage for Bing Maps Distance Matrix API is available in most places where Bing Maps supports routing. For details on coverage, please refer to the documentation.

Additionally, take a look at this project on GitHub, as it makes it easy to use the Distance Matrix API in .NET and also includes examples on how to use the Bing Maps Distance Matrix API.

For more information on the Bing Maps Distance Matrix API, how to get licensed, and frequently asked questions, visit our website.

We are always working to improve upon our APIs and look forward to seeing how people use the API and getting your feedback. Connect with us on the Bing Maps Forum to share your thoughts and let us know what you would like to see in future versions.

- Bing Maps team
Click to expand...

Source: Bing Maps Distance Matrix API Launches Today | Maps Blog

Windows 10: Bing Maps Routing API knows shortest route that visits all waypoints

Bing Maps Routing API knows shortest route that visits all waypoints

Bing Maps Routing API knows shortest route that visits all waypoints

Bing Maps Routing API knows shortest route that visits all waypoints

Bing Maps Routing API knows shortest route that visits all waypoints - Similar Threads - Bing Maps Routing

New Enhancements to Bing Maps Routing and Logistics APIs

Route to the remote station with win route table

Bing Maps Routing made easier with traffic camera images and more

Bing Maps gets Real Time Updates, Trip Frequency, and Alternate Routes

New route traffic coloring feature for Bing Maps

scenic routes

Auto route

Print routing

Geocoding and Routing improvements added to Bing Maps