Thanks! The avoidance of out-and-backs was a must-have for me. It can definitely be improved though. For example, right now the algorithm tries to avoid traversing the same path twice, but it will happily use a path that is only a few metres away! So adding some buffer around that (to penalise paths that are close to one already taken, if not the same) is a future bit of work.
Your suggestion is a nice one. Here in the UK, where it's common to have trains connecting most towns and larger areas, I have thought about adding the ability to say "I want to run 20 miles, and finish at a train station that can get me home in under an hour". Assuming the user is using a car makes it more easily achievable though. Consider it on the todo list!
wait, it avoids out-and-backs? could have fooled me, all the routes it showed for my house were out and backs, some had multiple points of out and back(like a letter Y or E)... i guess thats why i hate running near home, everything is an out and back and even the computer cant find an alternative. :)
It tries to! But if there's no good way to avoid them, then it will end up taking them anyway.
More specifically, when 'avoid repetition' is enabled (it is by default), then the routing algorithm has a very significant penalty weight applied to any existing path already taken.
Your suggestion is a nice one. Here in the UK, where it's common to have trains connecting most towns and larger areas, I have thought about adding the ability to say "I want to run 20 miles, and finish at a train station that can get me home in under an hour". Assuming the user is using a car makes it more easily achievable though. Consider it on the todo list!