Optimal Road Trips Relaunches With Build-Your-Own Route Tool After Google Maps Breakage

Dr. Randal S. Olson's website, Optimal Road Trips, which organizes the quickest route for multiple stops across the U.S., has been revived following disruptions to its interactive maps caused by updates to Google’s mapping services. The new version introduces a customizable feature, a request Olson often received prior to the restoration. Users can still access pre-made itineraries that traverse notable U.S. landmarks and National Parks, encompassing hundreds of driving hours nationwide. This initiative originated during a snowbound weekend in 2015 when Olson created a quicker way to find Waldo, inspired by the Traveling Salesman Problem. Journalist Tracy Staedter suggested adapting this method for a national route, selecting landmarks while Olson arranged the driving sequence. The map gained immense popularity, leading to Olson's discussion about it on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon within two weeks. Additionally, Olson crafts personalized routes, including Science Friday's Ultimate Geek Road Trip, featuring listener-suggested science and tech sites, such as Seattle's NOAA Sound Garden and Idaho's Experimental Breeder Reactor No. 1, which famously illuminated four bulbs using nuclear energy in 1951. Visiting every state was already a goal on Olson's bucket list.