With the use of GPS devices, we can keep very accurate trail data including x, y and z coordinates. Google maps can provide the topo map to get a good idea of the terrain for a specific trail. It would also be nice to have a profile for the ascent / descent for the trail.
GrannyGear.com has a good example of the type of map I'm talking about:
.This included with a topo map can really give you a great deal of information about a trail.
Another feature that would be nice to have is a ranking system that takes an average for all votes / rankings. We often see a single statement that says "Advanced, Intermediate, or Novice" but that can mean a lot of things to different riders with different skill levels. We should use the accuracy in numbers theory to improve the trail rating methods.
Sites like mapmyride.com are nice for keeping personal trails and sharing routes, but the data is a bit disorganized. It would be great to have a list of all the trails in state parks already plotted out that everyone access and rates accordingly, and if someone wanted to add that to his/her own training log data they could do so. And if they wanted to share the route, it'd be a link to the published trail. That way we're all working from the same data instead of thousands of people mapping and sharing the same route which gets jumbled together.
I've thought about working on such a site as a hobby but the magnitude of the work scares me since most of my time out of work is spent taking classes to finish up my degree. I'd like to hear what other people think would be required in such a web site and we could create a community based specification for a site that we'd all like to use. Perhaps there are other bikers out there with the capacity for web development and we could pool resources. I work primarily with asp.net and sql, but I'd be open to discussing other options.
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