sevenfourate
Devotee of OCD
- Location
- Lowestoft, Suffolk
Where’s everyone’s sense of adventure these days ?
Google Maps sucks
- Thread starter rogerzilla
- Start date
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Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Did you click "I'm Feeling Lucky" button?
If I don't know a place I check the route on Google Streetscene. I don't trust route planning sites as all too often locally they have tried to route along roads I will not cycle on, narrow carriageway 60mph A or B roads with a steep climb hidden at its base by a curve for example.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
There you are Monty, I corrected your post for you
IME it's very reliable. There's the occasional city centre contra flow bike lane missing but I'm yet to see a cycle route going along the motorway.
slowereveryyear
Active Member
Gave up using it as soon as Cycle Travel brought out its Android app.
Better in every way.
Better in every way.
OP
OP
rogerzilla
Squire
It has no local knowledge. From here to Ludlow there is no great option, but the least worst is about 5 miles of A49. It's a very wide A-road with good sightlines. Google will have me use 1.5 miles of A49, because there's no other option, then adds about 2 miles and a big hill (the A49 is flat), taking me up a B road that is just as fast as the A49, narrower, and with terrible sightlines.
- Location
- Inside my skull
Google, well there is your problem right away. It is not designed for actual real navigation!
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
Does any cycling mapping app have the local knowledge?? I don't think so.
Given the correct parameters some apps can/will reflect, to an extent, the users preferences but cannot possibly have the local knowledge I think you're referring to.
A lane we used to ride years ago has deteriorated very significantly to the extent it's simply unsafe to cycle. It was always iffy but today one would need to have complete disregard for personal safety to ride it. We choose to take a 3 - 4 mile detour. A route planner just cannot know this.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
I think the very valid point you're making to the OP is the point being made in the OP.
the_mikey
Legendary Member
- Location
- South Gloucestershire
Shrewsbury is a weird mixture of crap shared paths everywhere, a couple of attempts at being progressive but still useless cycling facilities, and few easy ways to escape without touching the A5 or A49, looks like you've found a way out!
Paul_Smith SRCC
www.plsmith.co.uk
- Location
- Surrey UK
To avoid the issues the rogerzilla mentioned in his OP, like PaulSB mentioned upthread to compose a route I use RWGPS (the 'Free', not paid for 'Premium' version). Again like PaulSB I toggle between the routing modes of 'Walking-Cycling-Driving' when creating, so you can switch to 'Walking' if you want to take a shortcut over a footbridge for example then back to 'Driving' if you want to stay on roads. In the example rogerzilla referenced toggling between those routing modes may have avoided the sections he would have preferred to avoid.
This feature was available with the free version of Alltrails but sadly no longer available in quite the same format, it now reroutes the whole course and not just the section selected; devaluing that feature massively for me. Until that change my preference was Alltrails, I personally found the user experience very similar to RWGPS but I liked that you could add 'Waypoints/POI', which is no longer available of the free version of RWGPS; that option has morphed to their 'Premium' service. That's often the issue with software, it can be updated to something less appealing. Each time that happens I revisit some of the other free options, I have recently experimented with Komoot, Cycle.Travel, Bryton, Plotaroute and Bunchies.cc. All have their virtues, I'd suggest trying them all so see what works best for you.
My hardware is a Garmin 830, but I seldom use their Garmin Connect to create a course. Living in a suburb of London for me it's an issue that it shares routing with runners, so it will often send me the wrong way around roundabouts, the wrong way down one way streets and take you down tracks even if you have selected 'Road Cycling'; overriding this on route effectively going 'off course' often causes the unit to crash. It's a shame and actually quite unbelievable that it's so poor, if a small outfit like Bunchies.cc who I'd imagine have far less resources have something that's vastly superior. I have been using a Garmin GPS since 2013 and yes Garmin Connect has improved but it's always been behind the free competition as far as I am concerned. It would surely make sense even from a branding and marketing perspective alone if it was viable to use everything 'Garmin'!
This feature was available with the free version of Alltrails but sadly no longer available in quite the same format, it now reroutes the whole course and not just the section selected; devaluing that feature massively for me. Until that change my preference was Alltrails, I personally found the user experience very similar to RWGPS but I liked that you could add 'Waypoints/POI', which is no longer available of the free version of RWGPS; that option has morphed to their 'Premium' service. That's often the issue with software, it can be updated to something less appealing. Each time that happens I revisit some of the other free options, I have recently experimented with Komoot, Cycle.Travel, Bryton, Plotaroute and Bunchies.cc. All have their virtues, I'd suggest trying them all so see what works best for you.
My hardware is a Garmin 830, but I seldom use their Garmin Connect to create a course. Living in a suburb of London for me it's an issue that it shares routing with runners, so it will often send me the wrong way around roundabouts, the wrong way down one way streets and take you down tracks even if you have selected 'Road Cycling'; overriding this on route effectively going 'off course' often causes the unit to crash. It's a shame and actually quite unbelievable that it's so poor, if a small outfit like Bunchies.cc who I'd imagine have far less resources have something that's vastly superior. I have been using a Garmin GPS since 2013 and yes Garmin Connect has improved but it's always been behind the free competition as far as I am concerned. It would surely make sense even from a branding and marketing perspective alone if it was viable to use everything 'Garmin'!
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presta
Legendary Member
Plotaroute uses OSM, which is a Wiki that anyone can contribute to, but it had several footpaths near here missing until I added them. It didn't have pedestrian access to the bus park, either.
Dogtrousers
Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
As an aside I never trust any cycling route from any algorithm. I use them as tools to sketch things out or to fill in the gaps when I plan my own routes but there's no way I'd just blindly follow an entirely auto generated route on my bike. I don't trust them and they can't possibly know my preferences.
I'll follow my car Satnav most of the time - driving is no fun and I just want to get it over with. It's different on a bike.
I'll follow my car Satnav most of the time - driving is no fun and I just want to get it over with. It's different on a bike.
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PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
I haven't heard of plotaroute but whether or not something is missing is irrelevant.
Local knowledge is about the safety and suitability of a road/lane etc for riding.
For example near me is a spot named Samlesbury Bottoms. For a long time it was a regular route to get out into the Ribble Valley. It was always a tricky descent with a tight 90⁰ lefthand bend at the bottom. Today that descent and bend are covered in potholes and a broken up surface.
We do a 3-4 mile detour to miss it. That's local knowledge.
