Route planning rules of thumb?

[roubaixtuesday]

Another tip is that you may find there are busy roads or motorways that intersect the route you would like. Search for places where minor roads either cross directly or use a bridge or tunnel to get past. Then tweak your route to use those crossing places and minimise time interacting with busy roads. If my route joins a busy road for a bit in a town / 30 zone I am less concerned about it. You need to be pragmatic as well.

Route planners often go out of their way to either (1) use official cycle paths or (2) avoid main roads.

This is particularly true on downhills, where often the main road will be far better than minor alternatives, so that's always worth checking out.

Also, if you generally prefer paved roads, sometimes route planners will do huge detours to avoid very short sections of "unpaved" eg a cobbled crossing might count as unpaved. Worth switching preferences to see what comes out.

 

[MichaelW2]

Sometimes I pick a destination, often I have 2 or 3 I might use that day and select after lunch.
I sometimes pick the route based on where I want to end up but often pick my destination based on a road I want to ride or a place I want to visit.
Be cognisant of pinch points such as crossing points of rivers, railways, major roads.

Riding a crappy autogenerated route, by the clock, seems like the kind of punishment ride that coworkers expect me to fork out for charidee.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Another tip is that you may find there are busy roads or motorways that intersect the route you would like. Search for places where minor roads either cross directly or use a bridge or tunnel to get past. Then tweak your route to use those crossing places and minimise time interacting with busy roads. If my route joins a busy road for a bit in a town / 30 zone I am less concerned about it. You need to be pragmatic as well.

This is just very good general route planning advice. LEJOG or not.

Quite a few main roads were built, or upgraded to dual carriageway, with no regard at all to smaller roads that cross them. So what you might think at first glance on the map is a crossroads of a small road over a larger one is actually nothing of the sort. The small historic lane just reaches the DC and stops. You can't cross there. Or maybe you could cross, theoretically, but it's insanely dangerous as you have to wait for a gap in 60/70mph traffic. Because of this, some dual carriageways can pose annoying barriers to routing. And if you're not careful you might be faced with a lengthy back-track

Motorways tend not to be so bad as they seem to have been built with a rule to preserve crossing rights of way. But dual carriageways that have grown from previously existing roads don't seem to have been subject to the same rules.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

Even then, my 800-mile ride across France last year had about 100 via points to tweak the ride. Lots of map and Street View research. Ultimately I would like to make cycle.travel better at choosing that sort of route without the via points, but it’s a never ending task.

I suspect reality is there will always be a fair number of "Via Points" as different cyclists want different specifics that would require a ludicrous range of "preference weighting" for each user (making the system unusable for most). eg a "paved road" from a cycling perspective is probably different from a "paved road" from a motor vehicle perspective (no idea what OSM definition is) eg many French Voie Verte cycle path are old converted railway lines are probably a preference for any cyclist. But some French cycle routes (eg EV1) can be challenging on a tadpole recumbent in places. ...

Similarly often (particularly in NL) I might be adding a Via Point to push my route past a convenient supermarket for my evening meal.

Some cyclists prefer shorter distance and enjoy hills but some prefer a few extra miles avoiding hills.

 

[blackrat]

As a matter of interest, whenever I plan to ride a route with which I am not familiar I always 'pre-ride' it on Street view. That way if the roads are not to my liking I can adjust the route before I venture out. I pre-rode my entire LeJog last time that way. It gives double the fun and the weather is always perfect and the mug of coffee as I ride is an added bonus.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

As a matter of interest, whenever I plan to ride a route with which I am not familiar I always 'pre-ride' it on Street view. That way if the roads are not to my liking I can adjust the route before I venture out. I pre-rode my entire LeJog last time that way. It gives double the fun and the weather is always perfect and the mug of coffee as I ride is an added bonus.

Do you literally click through the entire route?

 

[blackrat]

Do you literally click through the entire route?

Yes. I have the route sheet next to the computer to follow and just click away. It is a nice way to spend a quiet evening - or two or more - and that way it is like enjoying the tour twice over.

 

[dimrub]

NCN IMO is pointless to pay any attention to.

Interesting. I had an inkling that using NCN routes is a good rule of thumb in terms of getting less traffic and more dedicated paths. But then, last year when I did Bristol to King's Lynn, I followed NCN almost exclusively, so no control group.

 

[dimrub]

Unless you're using the app on your handlebars rather than uploading to a GPS, I'm not sure there's any advantage over the website

Mostly not being reliant on cellular coverage. But sure, for the actual daily navigation I use a Wahoo. I understand it's slightly more faff with cycle.travel to download the route to a device than with the likes of Komoot.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Mostly not being reliant on cellular coverage. But sure, for the actual daily navigation I use a Wahoo. I understand it's slightly more faff with cycle.travel to download the route to a device than with the likes of Komoot.

I also use a wahoo. In cycle.travel website, download gpx then open in the elemnt app. That's it.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Interesting. I had an inkling that using NCN routes is a good rule of thumb in terms of getting less traffic and more dedicated paths. But then, last year when I did Bristol to King's Lynn, I followed NCN almost exclusively, so no control group.

My experience of NCN is that its surfaces are unreliable (surfaced or undiagnosed unsurfaced without any indication) and it can be unreasonably indirect to avoid very short sections of busier roads.