GraphHopper Routing Engine 7.0 Released - GraphHopper Directions API

We have released the next version of GraphHopper, the flexible and fast open source routing engine for OpenStreetMap. Read more about it on GitHub and read on to find out what’s new.

When you start the new GraphHopper Routing Engine, you will be greeted by the new GraphHopper Maps. We have blogged about it earlier and you can try it out at graphhopper.com/maps:

The new user interface for the GraphHopper routing engine. Rewritten from scratch for a more convenient and more powerful experience.

One long awaited feature is that GraphHopper can now handle also more complex turn restrictions (by @easbar and @lukasalexanderweber). The most common cases for turn restrictions were already well supported, but sometimes the current turn restriction depends on the previous road from which one reached the current road and this required special handling. This was rather tricky to implement and improves routing for e.g. navigation applications, especially in larger cities where such restrictions may occur more frequently:

The route does not include the two consecutive left turns at A and B as there is a “complex” turn restriction that prohibits this U-turn. However, the restriction allows the left turn at B when coming from Rivers Street.

In the new GraphHopper version you can now easier store the OSM way IDs (by easbar). This improves the interaction with other applications like a PostgresSQL/PostGIS database or similar where you store your own properties per way ID from OpenStreetMap and want to enhance e.g. the GraphHopper response with these properties.

Customizable Routing

There are now new EncodedValues like “curvature” and “footway”. E.g. with “curvature” you can create custom models that prefer curvy roads or avoid them which can be quite powerful in combination with the “urban_density” or slope related EncodedValue released in the previous version.

We improved the response speed for heavier customized profiles and the hike profile has now more realistic times.

Changes to Areas

You can now also define custom areas outside of a custom model, so that you can create multiple models without creating the same areas again. We now use the FeatureCollection as format in the custom model to make it easier to use with other tools. And you can see the areas directly in GraphHopper Maps:

In this example the area is excluded and this is easily visible due to the shown area (in red).

Contributors

Thanks a lot to all contributors!

easbar, boldtrn, michaz, lukasalexanderweber, otbutz, karussell, ratrun, OlafFlebbeBosch

Many Other Bug Fixes and Improvements

Improve instructions for U-turns by @easbar
The country geometries are more precise by @karussell
The custom weighting is now the default by @karussell
Avoid hills in a custom model by @karussell
New intersections path detail by @boldtrn
Remove YAML support for server-side custom models by @karussell
Improve area check precision by @otbutz
Consider bicycle routes if tagged with “lcn=yes” by @ratrun
Support “;” access delimiter for bikes by @ratrun
Replace com.wdtinc MVT library with no.ecc by @easbar
Use explicit ignore list for highway values by @easbar
Maxspeed fix by @karussell
contributing nb_NO and updating pl_PL by @OlafFlebbeBosch + this.
i18n: updated sv_SE by @OlafFlebbeBosch
Split vehicle tag parsers into access, speed and priority by @easbar and @karussell
Use multi-threading for subnetwork preparation by @easbar
Make sure waypoints are not removed during path simplification by @easbar
… and many more
See also the changelog for potential breaking changes

Start using GraphHopper

You can see the new version in action on graphhopper.com/maps, or install it locally on your laptop or server. Do not hesitate to ask questions or leave feedback in our forum.

Happy routing!