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I am in need of importing custom roads into Google Maps, (ie: new roads that may not yet be visible in Google Maps) and I would like them to be included in the Directions Service API. The approach I was thinking about first, was to use Google Maps Engine to import a shapefile containing the road data of what I need and create a map based on that. Then I would use the Directions Service on the data in that Custom Map. I am very wary as to if this will work, and as far as I can tell there isn't a trial version of Google Maps Engine that I can use to test this out. And I really don't want to purchase it if it isn't going to work anyway.

Does anyone know if this way will work, or if there is a similar service that Google provides that will work for what I require?

I assume I will need to implement my own directions service if I want to do this, but I want to see if there already is a service out there that will instead.

Thanks!

EDIT: To try and clarify: I want to import a set of custom roads obtained by an alternate source. These roads are in a shapefile format and are more up-to-date than some of the roads on Google. What my goal is, is to use the existing google roads, and "merge" the data that I have where necessary. Say in the far north of Alberta Canada a company has put some roads in for getting to their oil site. I want to import those roads and be able to tell our drivers how to get there. They would take a main highway that google already has, and then turn onto a road that doesn't show up on google because it is too new. This is where the alternate data set of roads would come in.

I want to find the best way to do this, while obtaining directions that incorporate those new roads. I understand that this may not be possible using google services, but I am asking in case someone else has come across this problem.

user1630866
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    Could you please be clearer? Do you want to insert a custom route to Google or just show this custom route on the map? – Daniel Aug 28 '12 at 17:39
  • See the edit.. I hope that clarifies what I am trying to do – user1630866 Aug 28 '12 at 18:05
  • Is there a way to get the LatLgns from your shapefiles? If so, you can use polylines parsing the LatLngs of this new road. – Daniel Aug 28 '12 at 21:11
  • You can make a custom overlay containing the new roads and display them on your map, buy you cannot insert them into Google's database, so the routing engine will not use them. – Marcelo Aug 29 '12 at 04:51
  • Daniel: I can do that, but I was hoping there was a way to have these included in the Directions Service. I have been trying to talk to google about this for forever, but their sales guys are useless. Marcelo: Thanks, that was what I feared. – user1630866 Aug 29 '12 at 15:32

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I guess I should update this to my solution, in case anyone else was wondering the same thing. The answer is NO, currently there is no way to import custom data like roads into Google Maps and have them be included in the directions service. I have talked to a Google representative on the phone, and they have let me know this.

I had to implement my own routing engine, which I did using PostgreSQL, PostGIS, and PgRouting.

user1630866
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