Has google maps suddenly started sending cyclists down footpaths?

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I like Skol

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
Location
Sunny Ashton-under-Lyne
Possibly, depends how smart the software is and I think*** a big part of their routing suggestion is based on previous user routing, journey times and volume, plus instantaneous data (i.e users are currently and suddenly taking 30 minutes to traverse a journey segment that typically only takes 3 min means there must be an obstruction). A knock on effect of this is that if multiple users diverted via footpath shortcuts while using Google navigation (Don't forget, Google harvest ALL this data and process it mercilessly) then this might become built into future routing suggestions, kind of like Strava heatmap data, which will take no notice of the legality of journeys but simply highlights popular routing?

*** could be completely wrong here but I reckon this is part of how they do it.
 
E

ebikeerwidnes

Guru
Location
Z’ha’dum
I does depend if those paths are passable for a "normal" person

If it is using heat maps and working out that a bunch of keen Mountain Bike people are using a route then that may mean that is guides some bloke on a hybrid out for a ride downa path that requires carrying the bike over a fence.
Which would be a problem
 
Tom B

Tom B

Guru
Location
Lancashire
A google maps cycle route is always something of a mystery tour for me.

O/S Maps Route planner isnt much better at times when planning walks, seemingly taking you down every back street and out of your way to avoid a perfectly sensible footpath on a more direct route. OS Maps finds me a walking route 17 miles long to get to my parents house when my rack'oth'eye route is about 12.5mile. Albeit a bit desolate and hilly.

Much fun and mirth is often had when leaving google maps on "cycling mode" when using it to follow a driving route. Causes anger and swearing from SWMBO on a regular basis!
 
Richard Fairhurst

Richard Fairhurst

Guru
Location
Charlbury, the Cotswolds
I don't think Google uses popularity/heatmap routing for cycling, but I may be wrong. Currently if I ask it for a route from Charlbury to Oxford, it sends me through the grounds of Blenheim Palace (private but with a public footpath), which is probably a great ride up until the point you meet a park warden.
 
A

Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
I'm pretty sure it will do so if those paths are marked on the map as cycling routes - and there are quite a few marked as such which should not be.
E.g. https://www.google.com/maps/@51.527...ZQXMonLw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e3?entry=ttu
1714137416999.png


Shown on the map as "dirt/unpaved trail" (Dashed green line)

Or this one (Also "dirt/unpaved trail")
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.457...rbVBzCdA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!5m1!1e3?entry=ttu
1714138179492.png
 
I like Skol

I like Skol

A Minging Manc...
Location
Sunny Ashton-under-Lyne
ebikeerwidnes said:
If it is using heat maps and working out that a bunch of keen Mountain Bike people are using a route then that may mean that is guides some bloke on a hybrid out for a ride downa path that requires carrying
Click to expand...

That's not what I said. Google isn't tracking us all, all the time (supposedly) and keen mountain bikers are not likely to use Google to plan and navigate an extreme off-road route. I am suggesting that Google is using the data from people that have used their planning and completed journeys when being guided by that plan but deviating successfully from the planned route using unofficial paths. If enough people make the same deviation and google is feeding the data back into it's planning software then the unofficial shortcuts will possibly become integrated into the suggestions purely by dint of the fact that lots of people are going that way anyway?
 
A

Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
I like Skol said:
That's not what I said. Google isn't tracking us all, all the time (supposedly) and keen mountain bikers are not likely to use Google to plan and navigate an extreme off-road route. I am suggesting that Google is using the data from people that have used their planning and completed journeys when being guided by that plan but deviating successfully from the planned route using unofficial paths. If enough people make the same deviation and google is feeding the data back into it's planning software then the unofficial shortcuts will possibly become integrated into the suggestions purely by dint of the fact that lots of people are going that way anyway?
Click to expand...

That sounds likely.
 
OP
OP
matticus

matticus

Guru
Location
England, near a river, near some hills
Richard Fairhurst said:
I don't think Google uses popularity/heatmap routing for cycling, but I may be wrong.
Click to expand...

I'm doubting this too. Do you know much of the Thames Path Richard? gmaps recommended the Clifton Hampden to Dorchester stretch (which started this thread off) - I've never seen a cyclist on that section, and it's been underwater for most of 2024!

p.s. cycle.travel is refusing to route me straight thru Winchcombe on "paved" mode, so I will be asking about that sometime in a more appropriate thread ... :-)
 
Richard Fairhurst

Richard Fairhurst

Guru
Location
Charlbury, the Cotswolds
Ulp. It's funny though - people are absolutely obsessed with cycling the Thames Path. I think they see the sections in London and Oxford and assume the rest of it is like that. It really isn't.

Winchcombe - I think that's because https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/8132350 is erroneously marked as a dirt surface. I'll fix it in OSM (though exasperatingly it'll be just too late for the newest c.t map update!).
 
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