trail conditions dashboard

qclabrat

qclabrat

Well-Known Member
we're having a good discussion at the Trail Talk end of the these forum and I figured to expand this to everyone else

in short, I've been riding CR the past few weeks when I shouldn't have, but would have benefited from a dashboard of sorts to tell tell me to skip CR and go elsewhere

I personally only ride in 4-5 parks so only check the boards for them, I would consider others but I don't want to click through out the state to find a place to ride

Like I said, I'm envisioning a simple (red, yellow, green) dashboard for all ride sites around the state, so I'm looking for feedback on this idea

Importance is to keep it simple, most of us have day jobs, so complex processes will die quickly
 
I feel like you need a simple web interface. 2 fields:

Park: drop down
Rating: 1-5

Anonymous so nobody gets yelled at for riding bad trails. Parks accumulate a rating based on these numbers. In the backend you also store date. After X days the data is dropped. The result is this:

Park rating (average)
Strength (number of data points)

Then you list the parks by rating or by alphabetical order. And you can color code the ratings as you like.
 
and this:

last update - with visual time decay indication
color coded
page for favorite parks
page for all parks - or something similar to imap where it is a subscribed folder
georef for nearest park(s)
push notification above or below a certain level.
ical integration for live park updates on calendar for upcoming events.
local weather stations to each park for current/forcasted conditions
rating feedback/realtime info
certified raters that are not anonymous
actual, observed, postulated conditions
rainfall in last N days (however many is available from noaa)
comments
lost&found
icons for things at/in the park (ie bathroom) - blueskyin' now
post a selfie
sharing
ad space
branded
 
What happen to good old fashioned common sense. Has the new generation come so desensitized to their surroundings that you can't figure out when to ride dirt or pavement. Why do I feel technology has made the world dumber? I get what your trying to do here but damn....
 
I get you Matt, but without prior knowledge of the conditions, there's a good chance I'll be riding it once I get there
Most aren't going to turn around and drive another 10-15 miles to another locale which may be better
Think of this like weather reports, check it before you leave the house
 
Real people, real reports. it is for the 'edge days' or seasonal change. weather is significantly
different across our diverse state.
in addition to qc's comments:
in the flying community, there is something called 'get-there-itis' - once the plan is made, and wheels are up, it is
difficult for many pilots to vary destination - i'm certain this applies to 'we are going to ride <park> today' - and once
set out to do it, it is happening unless there is a significant break in the event chain, or a highly disciplined person
(actually getting somewhere and not riding is good behavioral training for this)

-------
More requirements gathering 😀

image generator for embedding conditions as needed
widgets/gadgets - whatever they are called now
obstacle/hazard reporting
trail change/trail damage reporting - Something like this lends credit to the community for reporting rogue stuff
google map integration for a quick glance at conditions across the region - like this one (and integration with the reporting stuff)
maybe something to help with TM management (logging time, distributing dates....)
park contact info - (jorba & land managers)
suggestion box
some usage statistics - checked conditions (opt in/out, anonymous reporting)
MMR/Garmin/Strava linking - (i'm not sure what this means, it just sounds right)
Maprika integration - don't know what this means either.
backlinks/feed mtbnj conditions - (might be its own section)
friends feed (hey, i'm at cr today) - maybe use the ldap services from mtbnj? (do they use ldap?)
 
@fidodie I think the rainfall in the last N days covers it (NOAA typically gives 3 days in 1, 3, and 6-hour increments, probably more and cumulative if you dig into the data),
but I thought this was kind of cool too:
Snow Water Melt Equivalent
Not useful beyond April, but fun data.
 
jmanic said:
@fidodie I think the rainfall in the last N days covers it (NOAA typically gives 3 days in 1, 3, and 6-hour increments, probably more and cumulative if you dig into the data),
but I thought this was kind of cool too:
Snow Water Melt Equivalent
Not useful beyond April, but fun data.
Click to expand...

Wow - Wouldn't be beyond possible to get a research grant on how this data can be used to help manage the parks....
nice find - expanding the need for hydrologic sensing..
(who do we know that needs a phd project topic?)
 
2 fields. This will show 2 fields.

And a list. This is all.

qclabrat said:
Importance is to keep it simple, most of us have day jobs, so complex processes will die quickly
Click to expand...

That, exactly that.

I will try to throw together a php page to pull the cookie and get the username for the user maybe today or tomorrow. I have decided that I'm not going to make it anonymous after all because that will just entice users to overload the data to support their opinion.

I don't see how this is a bad thing or technology creep at all. The trailspinners have had a trails dashboard for 10 years, well before smartphones were prevalent. Knowledge is not the enemy,
 
yeah - pretty much park/(good:bad) and a color
still think a favorites page, vs all parks is a good idea.
and duration since last actual report. (floating resolution 10m, 3h, 2d etc...)

geez - i'm already onto monetizing it..... 🙂

closest bike shop
miles - ytd at the park
damn, there i go again !
 
At best, I *may* add "distance to the nearest pickle shop". But only if I feel like it.
 
Is it easy to push something like this to an rss feed etc to incorporate into other projects? If the gods would allow it that is
 
Needs THREE fields and a catchy name for the Dashboard.... "NJ Dirt RAG" -

Taken from project mgmt 101 - "RAG" - Red, Amber, Green

Red - Conditions suck, don't ride
Amber - Conditions are mostly ok but some areas suck to ride with caution
Green - Conditions are good, ride all day

Like I tought my kids.. Red means stop, Green means go, Yellow means haul ass and be ready for anything.
 
I need a test crew. Who wants to test? I could use a solid 10 people or so who are going to be willing to give feedback on parks and test this half-baked widget as I code it.
 
I think you missed the entire idea of this thread, Bard. It's not a running dialog of trail conditions. It would be a page where users put input. Then you show overall averages of ratings.
 
Norm said:
I need a test crew. Who wants to test? I could use a solid 10 people or so who are going to be willing to give feedback on parks and test this half-baked widget as I code it.
Click to expand...

What are you envisioning - 10 people that will go to multiple parks or 10 people @ 1 per park?
 
so a crawler that scans the threads for trail condition hints is not part of the project ?

browser based or app based ?
 
Norm said:
I need a test crew. Who wants to test? I could use a solid 10 people or so who are going to be willing to give feedback on parks and test this half-baked widget as I code it.
Click to expand...

in like flynn

i can cover 6MR and/or Sourlands. I can also do CR but not as well as 6MR and the Sourlands.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom