Bike friendly route planner

[Panoramix]

May be some of you know about it, but I have found an interesting website which does bike specific google map style route planning.

OpenStreetMap routing service

It is not finished as it does not do via and you cannot "bully" the route as you would with google but it looks quite sensible for a beta thing.

Also it can export the route as a track, it does not do routesheets though.

Well, I just thought it was worth sharing...

Y

[bobajobrob]

OpenStreetMap sucks. Like every open source project, it's incomplete, unfinished, missing huge wads of data and is destined to be abandoned like a stray dog.

Google maps is where it's at. Have you seen bikely.com?

[delthebike]

OpenStreetMap sucks. It's missing huge wads of data. Google maps is where it's at. Have you seen bikely.com?

Google maps used to be incomplete at one time. OpenStreetMap just needs time and input.

[Panoramix]

OpenStreetMap sucks. It's missing huge wads of data. Google maps is where it's at. Have you seen bikely.com?

Yes, I use bikely now but I just wanted an aternative to clicking at each turn! Also bikely does not show cycle paths. OSM is nearly getting there in the Bristol area and has more bike related info than google.

[bobajobrob]

Google maps used to be incomplete at one time. OpenStreetMap just needs time and input.

Go open source! I'd go so far as to say that in a few month's time I might even be able to plan a route to my local tesco! In the mean time, it's missing about 90% of the streets around my house. Still, it's free!

[delthebike]

Go open source! I'd say that in a few month's time I might even be able to plan a route to my local tesco!

That's a reason to not complete the maps! 

[fin]

My street is missing.    

The wind has been really strong here and a few slates are missing from the roof, but I am typing this from inside my house and I can still see my neighbour's house.  I don't think I've been blown away like Dorothy!

I use Bikely.com, but it's still missing cyclepaths.

[eck]

I use http://www.toporoute.com/
You get much more dramatic elevation profiles with them than you do with bikely. 

[Panoramix]

Go open source! I'd go so far as to say that in a few month's time I might even be able to plan a route to my local tesco!

It managed to compute my 12 mile commute as I ride it, much more useful than Tesco!

[simonp]

My street is missing.    

Add it then!  I did that with mine.  

Cambridge is complete now.  It has cycle paths and pavements - it knows about the short cuts that you can take on a bike that aren't available for a car.  Google maps (on its own) is useless for this.

It doesn't get my route to Lavenham correct.  But as I happen to have a GPS trace of cycling there from a DIY audax I can upload that to get the missing roads added.

[bobajobrob]

It managed to compute my 12 mile commute as I ride it, much more useful than Tesco!

Amazing! The wonders of open source will never cease!

[fin]

My street is missing.    

Add it then!  I did that with mine.  

Maybe not the right place on this thread, but I I'll persist anyway.
Are you saying you can add 'missing' roads to Bikely or OpenStreetMap  or both.  I've had a (very) quick browse through the Help sections without anything popping up as an obvious solution.

[bobajobrob]

Go open source! I'd say that in a few month's time I might even be able to plan a route to my local tesco!

That's a reason to not complete the maps! 

Yeah because people don't need to shop for food, goddammit!

[tonycollinet]

I'm surprised more people aren't using bikehike

You can use google and OS maps on the same screen. The nice thing is it will route along google roads automatically (you don't need to plot every turn). If you need to go off-road,  you can use the OS map. Much quicker than any other site I've used.

Exports to GPX are available

[Panoramix]

Maybe not the right place on this thread, but I I'll persist anyway.
Are you saying you can add 'missing' roads to Bikely or OpenStreetMap  or both.  I've had a (very) quick browse through the Help sections without anything popping up as an obvious solution.

Openstreetmap is a map generated by people, a bit like wikipedia:
OpenStreetMap

Which is also why there are some missing streets!

[simonp]

A quick precis of how Openstreetmap works:

You follow a route (road, path, etc) with a GPS unit logging the trace (gpx or whatever).

You upload this trace to Openstreetmap.

You or someone else run an app which allows you to select an area, download traces and see which haven't been manually marked as roads etc.  You use the trace as a guide to draw in missing roads etc and upload this new data.

So if your street is missing you can add it by either uploading a trace and then drawing the road on top, or if someone else has already traced it, you just need to do the drawing part.

[perpetual dan]

I check back to open street map every so often, but its not useful for planning for me yet. Now I've got a GPS adding some tracks is a possibility. For planning I've been using bike route toaster, which is also a google maps application, but just seems nice and easy to make work (except that so far I then have to manually name the routes in my GPS).

[inc]

Have a look at (the open source)  Viking  Main Page - VikingWiki it uses OSM but also Goggle maps, the transparent and terrain Google maps Terraserver and BlueMarble. I believe it works with MS. You can  route using the magic scissors function and export as a gpx also into Google maps for the written route. Not much written in the way of help but it is simple enough to figure out.

[Panoramix]

Have a look at (the open source)  Viking  Main Page - VikingWiki it uses OSM but also Goggle maps, the transparent and terrain Google maps Terraserver and BlueMarble. I believe it works with MS. You can  route using the magic scissors function and export as a gpx also into Google maps for the written route. Not much written in the way of help but it is simple enough to figure out.

Interesting, i will have a go at installing it. It still won't solve the issue of googlemap being cyclepath autistic.

[inc]

Update on Viking, it looks like Google have told them to remove all Google maps support.

[perpetual dan]

I've just spotted that bike route toaster has grown a "cycle" (and street) map mode alongside the usual google map / satellite / hybrid / terrain modes, which comes from OSM. To make that useful in routing you can switch to OSM data and bike mode. It's just let me route up a bridle-way that I know is perfectly serviceable but was invisible on the google version without tracing the satellite image; and along the route 90 which does things cars cannot. 

The OSM view does the usual thing of putting a lot of emphasis on the NCN routes while the little lanes get rather lost in the terrain, so the google "map" view still has a use. As noted in another thread, what I'd really like is view that inverts the motorists view of road importance ... we'll get there.

[Panoramix]

And it does give a list of turns downloadable as a csv file, there is scope to do an automatic turn by turn route to load in the gps with a bit of scripting.

[cometworm]

Just tried bikeroutetoaster, which is absolute genius. Now I just have to buy that Garmin I've been drooling over...

[andygates]

And it does give a list of turns downloadable as a csv file, there is scope to do an automatic turn by turn route to load in the gps with a bit of scripting.

Or to get them to do it - it's an obvious upgrade.  Instead of all that trkpt silliness, pop the controls into the downloaded gpx.  It's already doing the hard work of calculating them!

[Somnolent]

Just don't use that OSM data on Bike Route toaster for car navigation....
Car, cycle & foot modes will all route down routes tagged in OSM as "unsurfaced roads" so care needed on a bike too.

One I found (direct route between Sparsholt & Up Sombourne - avoiding busy B3049) - would be OK on MTB, dodgy on a tourer, near impossible on a narrow tyred road bike. Definite no go for cars, but probably OK for a 4x4