Traveling Salesman Revisited

traveling_salesmanNew SweetMaps application:  the Traveling Salesman’s European Vacation.   I take no credit for the original idea or clever coding of a traveling salesman program for Google Maps developed by Geir Kokkvoll Engdahl.  (See my original  post last month.  However, while writing a research paper for a UNGIS course at the Vrij University, the idea of a sweet little application dawned on me.  This is just a start… no doubt someone else could take this further.  There are limitations, and it will be interesting to see if anyone uses it and whether my Google Maps API account will be overloaded.   I would happily take comments, suggestions, bug reports.

Update 17/6/2018: Amazingly this little PHP app still works (sort of). Try just two or three cities. The reset doesn’t seem to work, so reload the page to start over. Anyway, it was the thought that counted!

AMFORA

AMFORA is the Dutch acronym for Alternative Multifunctional Underground Space Amsterdam.  At a meeting of the Enlightened Underground international conference on Jan 29, the engineering firm, Strukton, revealed a plan for building a new Amsterdam, under the canals.   Together with the architectural firm, Zwarts & Jansma, they released a concept book (not available any more – june 2018) illustrating this underground future.  The plan would reduce traffic in the city, providing underground parking, park-and-ride facilities, shops, entertainment, and sports facilities.

There would be a positive impact on the environment, health, and quality of life with the crowded canal-side roads transformed into broad foot (and bike) paths. Somehow, a by-product of the process would be cleaner canals, clean enough to swim in.   This is truly an ”adaptation” scenario for global warming, as the land of Hans Brinker, turns into the costa del sol of the future.  The project images are wonderful, the idea is fantasmagoric.

Update 17/6/2018: AMFORA in het Stadslab van het Amsterdam Museum