I have an unnamed Garbage Disposal client who needs a service area checker. I’ve already done this for him using a rough map of their service area, and plotting the map on a Google Maps map, then getting the coordinates in polygon form. Then I geolocate the customer’s address and use the ‘Point In Polygon‘ method to determine whether they are within the service area.
This works great! Unfortunately, I’ve been given very specific directions on the service area boundaries, which is pretty painful:
Start at Corner of Street1 Rd and Street2 Rd. Boundary is North of Street1 Road and all of Street2 Rd to Some Church Road (both sides of Some Church rd) to intersection with Road Rd North to the intersection of Street9 Rd. on to Street3 Rd. servicing halfway north through Street3 rd. Crosses to Old Driving Street Rd to it’s intersection of Street8 Rd. then across to last house on Driving Street Rd (not Old Driving Street Rd). 14050 NW Driving Street Rd (last house we service) across to Street7 Rd. and the last house we service is 13111 NW Street7 Rd then over to NW Street6 School Rd. and the last house we service is 13000 NW Street6 School Rd. From Street6 School West to both sides of Street20 Rd. following the northern most part of Street20 Rd. onto straight through from Street5 Rd then over to Street4 Pass Rd (road lines do not exist, this is an explanation of boundary) back to Street4 Pass Road intersection with Street10 Road. Then Street10 Rd. following 000th Ave. to it’s intersection with US HWY 00. Then crossing HWY 00 the dividing line becomes 000th Ave. to its intersection with NW Street15 Rd and we only do the North side of Street15 Rd. Then Street15 Rd intersects with Drive Dr. we do just the North side of that to its intersection with Street4 Pass Rd. of which we only do the east side of Street4 Pass to its intersection of Street1 Pkwy of which we do the north side only to its intersection with Street16 Pkwy to its intersection with Street14 Rd and we only do the West side of Street14 Rd. to its intersection with Street11 Rd and we only do the North side of Street11 Rd. through the River Creek area then back to the boundarys on the north side of Hillsboro Street11 on Street1 Rd. and then just the North side of Street1 Rd. to connect to Street2 Rd.
Question:
What is the best way to create a polygon of longitude/latitude coordinates using a set of plain text directions?
acme has a mapper that reads out lat/lon quite easily. You do have to reposition the map so that the cross hairs are pointing at the spot you want, but then you get the latitude and longitude to good accuracy. To get your polygon, you could drag the map around to each of the points given. It won’t be painless, but it probably won’t take more than an hour.