Generating random points on a route

Question

I am trying to generate random points on a route from one point to another. What I have till now is, given a source and a destination, I can get a route using Google's API. But how do I get the coordinates of random points on the route?

Answer 1

I'm not sure what tool you are using, but look into linear referencing methods.

For example, if you are using PostGIS, here are 10 random points along a linestring:

SELECT ST_Line_Interpolate_Point('LINESTRING (10 20, 50 60, 80 30, 140 60)', random())
FROM generate_series(1,10)

Or if using Shapely:

from random import random
from shapely.geometry import LineString
line = LineString([(10, 20), (50, 60), (80, 30), (140, 60)])
for i in range(10):
    pt = line.interpolate(random(), True)
    print(pt.xy)

Answer 2

Write a function that returns total length of a route, and another that interpolates a point at an arbitrary distance along a route. Use a random number generator that generates a random distance d along the route such that 0.0 < d < length and passes it to the second function.