[Xastir] OT: Best source of road elevation data?

[Curt, WE7U]

On Sun, 27 Aug 2006, David Flood wrote:

> Since a lot of people that use Xastir also work with other mapping data /
> programs, I thought I'd ask a question about road elevation data.  Replies
> should probably be off-list to davidf4 at mindspring.com
>
> I'm part of a group that coordinates and provides support and Ham Radio
> communications for bike rides.  For a ride that took place last week, I used
> Topo for the elevation and climbing data.  Based on the feedback I got, that
> data was totally useless and less than 10% accurate since it appears that
> Topo uses the true terrain rather than the elevation of the road which is
> often much smoother than the terrain.
>
> So, I now need to find a better source of data and an inexpensive (or
> preferably free) program to make road elevation profiles for a given route.
>
> Any suggestions / ideas?

The only sources I can think of would be these:

    USGS topo's
    USGS DEM's
    County GIS data (probably the most accurate for your purposes)

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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