Apps for Bicycle Directions

Post by addicted » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 5:18 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #79

BattyMilk wrote: post #22

For the most part, city riding is pretty well served by Google maps IMO. A few years ago, following Google maps cycling directions me and a couple of friends on road bikes were led through muddy forest trails, old rail road tracks and green lanes on a London -> Paris The difficulty with cycling directions is that there's not a 1 size fits all solution, a roadie needs smooth road but would prefer it quiet and scenic,…

> A few years ago, following Google maps cycling directions me and a couple of friends on road bikes were led through muddy forest trails, old rail road tracks and green lanes on a London -> Paris Even in cities Google is similarly terrible, and it's actually gotten worse over the last few years as more unsuitable routes are listed as "cycle paths". I was trying to get home through London and Google sent me about a k…

Post by lmm » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 5:38 AM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #56

BattyMilk wrote: post #22

For the most part, city riding is pretty well served by Google maps IMO. A few years ago, following Google maps cycling directions me and a couple of friends on road bikes were led through muddy forest trails, old rail road tracks and green lanes on a London -> Paris The difficulty with cycling directions is that there's not a 1 size fits all solution, a roadie needs smooth road but would prefer it quiet and scenic,…

When I was trying to do the EuroVelo 15 route just over two years ago, it was really obvious Google Maps thought I could maintain sprint speeds all day long. It also didn’t understand the impact of hills, which is why I cut the attempt short (1080 km) after it redirected me up a Swiss hill instead of keeping me close to the Rhine. I would’ve preferred a GPX to follow, but I couldn’t find any of that route.

Post by yunusabd » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 7:52 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #83

yunusabd wrote: post #70

I recently used openrouteservice [1] for a trip from Bremen to Berlin (~400km) and it worked pretty well. It even lets you choose between different types of bikes (road, MTB). I downloaded the GPX into OsmAnd on my phone for turn-by-turn directions. OsmAnd also does a decent job of guiding you back onto your predefined route. One thing that was a bit irritating was the directions at intersections, where you clearly h…

> One thing that was a bit irritating was the directions at intersections, where you clearly had to go straight, but it told me to turn right and then immediately turn left. This happened when the bike path took a slight turn before the intersection, e.g. to guide you towards pedestrian traffic lights. Not sure which one of the two apps is to blame here. It's your workflow that's to blame: using a GPX erases that inf…

Post by mantesso » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 9:10 AM UTC

altacc wrote: post #94

For those that don't want step by step navigation but instead use serendipity to wayfind through a city, I can recommend beeline https://beeline.co/pages/beeline-velo It's a simple arrow that points towards your destination, leaving you to work out the route as you cycle. Not the quickest way to get you there but I enjoy the discovery aspect of it.

Post by hokkos » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 9:33 AM UTC

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #54

As a regular contributor to OpenStreetMap, I did not realize how poor the bike lanes mapping was around me (surroundings of Versailles, France). There's a lot to fix :)