It would be nice if it were possible to set a custom home location (latitude/longitude) instead of using a city.
I’m currently living in Pacific Beach which is part of San Diego and unfortunately, Pacific Beach is out of view when the map initially loads on the San Diego city center and I have to scroll each time I view the LifeMap.
Thanks!
This is an interesting request, because I think there are some more details to it.
When visiting the page for San Diego - San Diego, California - CityStrides - it zooms out to fit the full map in view. I’m guessing that you have to zoom in a fair bit as well as pan to the exact location.
So the lat/lon setting would probably also need a zoom level paired with it. I know how large a city is because of its border that I fit to view - I wouldn’t know how large the area you care most about is, so I’d need some other indicator. I think a zoom level would do that, but I wouldn’t want anyone to have to know WTF a zoom level actually is 
so I’m thinking the implementation of this is something like … you zoom/pan a map view and click a “set as home” button (or some similar phrasing) and the code figures out what lat/lon/zoom values to save.
I think this would only apply to the LifeMap page, since all other maps have some other focus (city/street pages etc).
Does that all seem right?
haha, good point!
I think the process you described is a fairly common concept so people should understand it and would work perfectly.
Would love to have this!
I would find it convenient to further define the default LifeMap settings beyond just city.
I expect the LifeMap generation works by pulling the coordinates from the defined center of the default city, and using some defined zoom level.
Example URL for my LifeMap upon accessing site:
'David Morin's Map View - CityStridesCoordinates = 50.959679253214205,-114.10055801535646
Zoom level = 12.000000000000002
I would find it helpful to be able to set either or both of:
I would change this periodically as I focus on different areas of the city over a period of weeks, and would find it helpful to immediately be in the target area whenever I open my LifeMap.
Why don’t you just set a bookmark for the url? Seems a simple shortcut to your idea…
@969823ab4485c3f2e393 Slick idea. I’m going to use it. Never really paid attention to the address bar while on the LifeMap.
I wonder if, while on the LifeMap, there could be a button that saves as default?
I like the idea @davemorin.
…that is a great idea. Thanks for the thought @969823ab4485c3f2e393!
Just to follow up on this- there is one outstanding benefit of defining a “default GPS coordinate”: opening the LifeMap on your phone when you’re out and about. I would still find it helpful in that setting.
I agree, especially as the fully specced url strings that make @969823ab4485c3f2e393’s workaround possible also make it really cumbersome to navigate away from the lifemap back to a strider’s profile page (have to click back once for every action taken on the lifemap)
Have always loved the default city feature, and regularly change it within my settings so my LifeMap opens to whatever city I’m currently in.
Would it be possible to add an option that is just “current location”? So every time you access your LifeMap it zooms to where you are.
I think that over 90% of the time I am accessing my LifeMap it is to either plan routes from my current location or to track where I am live on a run. This feature would help with both scenarios
In my experience with the live location button (the button with the crosshairs icon on the right), it asks me for permission every time. This would mean there would be a blocking permission popup twice (once for location and once for direction) before the LifeMap page would be visible/usable.
I’m very hesitant to add such an intrusive feature like this, and might instead suggest that the LifeMap page isn’t the best for this situation. The individual city page is going to automatically focus the map to that area, limit Node Hunter to the city border, display your LifeMap, and provide (though likely less useful in this case) incomplete/complete street lists.
Maybe I’m an outlier, though, and people aren’t being prompted for location permissions every time…
That’s a good point, and you are right that the permissions pop up every time. Recognizing the importance of privacy and permissions would you consider a world where users could opt-in to a feature that disables this? Or is this moving into dangerous territory OR is actually not something on the CityStrides domain but forced from elsewhere?
Yeah, this is forced at the operating system level. I think the only permanent option is in an app.
Totally understood. Was a very minor idea, saving at best ~3s per load. Let’s call it closed!
I like this idea. What about “dynamic pinned cities” (maybe listed below your manually pinned) that ~pin~ list* the last 2 or 3 cities where you actually progressed streets? You don’t need to know the user’s location, you already know what city their runs are in.
Yeah, a Recent Cities list just below the Pinned Cities list could be useful.
It would probably be fairly complicated, but also sorting the city list by most/least recent progress could be an interesting view for some people.
I am almost never on Street Ferret, because it is awful compared to CityStrides, but I think they sort by cities with most recently completed streets. For non-subscribers, one can only view one’s most recent five cities, or something along those lines.