Travel Mapping is still very much in development, but we welcome users, both those who previously used CHM (the now defunct Clinched Highway Mapping project) and new users, to submit their travels for inclusion in the system.
To use the system, build a ".list" file showing the segments you've traveled on the highways we've included in the project. This process is substantially the same as it was in CHM. CHM's process is described at
http://cmap.m-plex.com/docs/getstarted.php. Please refer to that until we get our own instruction manual up, but note the following changes:
- Our draft highway browser, which will show the latest versions of all routes in the project, is at http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php. Yes, it's ugly but the essentials are there and it will be improved over time (web development volunteers are welcome). Note that the ".list Name" column on the big list of routes gives the region and route name you'll need as the first two items on each .list file line.
- If you are coming to the project from CHM, you are welcome to submit your old .list file then see what errors show up (see below for where to look) or make a preemptive pass through our updates page for changes that will affect you: http://tm.teresco.org/devel/updates.php
- You can submit files by email to travmap@teresco.org or by forking our GitHub repository at https://github.com/TravelMapping/UserData, adding your file, and submitting a pull request (detailed instructions on this method to be produced - would be happy to receive some to post from one of the several users who are maintaining their files this way).
- We have no "traveler list" page yet, but you can find your maps and stats as described below.
Once the first version of your .list file has been imported and the site has been updated (a process I sometimes do several times in a day, while other times it's several days between updates), you can see your information in a few ways:
- A log file giving any errors in the processing of your data and a summary of the stats generated will become available at http://tm.teresco.org/logs/terescoj.log, but of course you would substitute your own username at the end (the base name of the .list you sent).
- A draft map visualization using a Google Maps overlay at a URL like http://tm.teresco.org/hbtest/mapview.php?rg=WI&u=terescoj. Again, you will substitute your own username, and you can give any comma-separated list of TravelMapping regions after the rg=, or you can replace it with a comma-separated list after a sys= specifying system codes that you would like mapped. For example, the following shows my travels on all national systems in the US: http://tm.teresco.org/hbtest/mapview.php?sys=usai,usaib,usaif,usaus,usausb,usasf,usansf&u=terescoj (be prepared to wait for your browser to load this - it's a lot of data to transfer and map)
- You can add a u= parameter to any highway browser URL to see your travels on that route as defined by your most recently-imported .list file. For example: http://tm.teresco.org/devel/hb.php?r=ny.us020&u=terescoj shows my travels to date on US 20 in New York.
Many more maps, lists of travelers, more stats, will come over time. I am very sure we'll have everything CHM had and a lot more.
Though we've made and continue to make a lot of updates and fixes to the highway data compared to the last version from CHM, former CHM users should find that their CHM .list files are still a great starting point for mapping your travels with the new system.
I intend to keep this post current as URLs change, functionality is added, etc.