Route planning website - Vox Pop.

[simonineaston]

Hi folks, as the anniversay of my purchasing the "premium" version of Satmap's Xpedition turns, I've edecided not to renew. It's continual relience on Silverlight presents challenges and I'm fed up with other minor annoyances which have plagued the software ever since I can remember. I love Richard's cycle.travel website and it's the Go To... solution for planning all my cycle routes, but I do a lot of country walking too for which cycle.travel isn't ideal. I thought it'd do no harm to ask you folk what you're currently using to plan and download routes these days - any suggestions for a planner website that uses OS maps, like Xpedition does, other than the OS site itself, which I've tried and didn't get on with.

[iandriver]

http://bikehike.co.uk/index.php has an OS maps options. Toggle maps sizes and switch off stick to roads and it should be job done.

[Norman H]

I use Memory Map on PC and android tablet. Judging only by on line comments, their customer service could be better, but most issues seem to arise from their hardware and the software is pretty good.

MM don't cover Ireland so I also use Mapyx Quo for OS Ireland maps and they too sell OS UK mapping. Their software is also very good. The Irish 50K maps are more expensive than the UK maps and so I purchase the relevant tiles as and when I need them. Its a very convenient process and would be a cheap way to test the product

Other brands are available, notably Anquet although my only experience was through a free trial many year ago.

OS mapping is hard to beat for walking, and the licence to print paper copies, that all these packages offer, is very useful given the price of paper maps.

[Mick F]

http://bikehike.co.uk/index.php has an OS maps options. Toggle maps sizes and switch off stick to roads and it should be job done.

Yep.
BikeHike for me every time.

[simonineaston]

Cheers, folks - I'll give BikeHike a whirl!

[RickH]

Yes I like Bikehike too.

I generally use it set to follow roads, switching between "driving" & "walking" in the "Follow Road Mode Settings" under options where necessary (walking will happily take you the wrong way round roundabouts or along one-way streets but will let you route on traffic free paths that the driving option won't). I stick to Google rather than OSM for "Routing Algorithm" as OSM hasn't worked for me for months (possibly years) now. You can still use the OSM mapping with Google routing! Having the option to turn off following any mapping - just straight line route between clicks - can be useful where it won't route where there patently is a way through that hasn't made it onto the mapping.

I also like Cycle.travel very good at producing fairly sensible routes. If you register you can save them & even easily edit the route later. My 2 minor issues are 1) that you can't go where there isn't a route on the map - if, say, the access from a road to a canal towpath is missing from the map - there is no way to get it to make a route that way (apart from editing the OSM map). 2) it inserts embedded waypoints as instructions into a saved GPS file. If you have a GPS that does turn-bu-turn instructions you either need to turn that off or strip out the cycle.travel points (I usually do that by loading the route into Bikehike without loading the coursepoints & then resaving it)

I'm recently been dabbling with ridewithGPS, as a number of people I cycle with use it to share their routes. But I haven't used it enough yet to form much of a judgement on it.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I also like Cycle.travel very good at producing fairly sensible routes. If you register you can save them & even easily edit the route later. My 2 minor issues are 1) that you can't go where there isn't a route on the map - if, say, the access from a road to a canal towpath is missing from the map - there is no way to get it to make a route that way (apart from editing the OSM map). 2) it inserts embedded waypoints as instructions into a saved GPS file. If you have a GPS that does turn-bu-turn instructions you either need to turn that off or strip out the cycle.travel points (I usually do that by loading the route into Bikehike without loading the coursepoints & then resaving it)

For 2 - is that with TCX files? (GPX tracks are polyline-only, GPX routes are turns only, and TCXs are both. I think.)

Definitely planning to do 1 - I know what I want to implement, it's just figuring out the how... it requires open heart surgery on the routing engine and every time I look at the relevant bit of the source code my brain hurts!

[RickH]

For 2 - is that with TCX files? (GPX tracks are polyline-only, GPX routes are turns only, and TCXs are both. I think.)

Yes I've used TCX files by default for a number of years, as I know they do what I want, & never really explored what you get with other formats. Would one or other from of GPX not put those in? I'm not much bothered about the file sizes.

Definitely planning to do 1 - I know what I want to implement, it's just figuring out the how... it requires open heart surgery on the routing engine and every time I look at the relevant bit of the source code my brain hurts!

It would be great if you could but it isn't a biggie for me personally. My worst case scenario is that I just re-create the route I want, minus the bit where it won't go the way I want, in Bikehike. An alternative is to create the route in 2 parts then save & merge them in Bikehike.

Maybe I should be more proactive in OSM editing when I find missing links like I mentioned. I'm a bit hesitant as I'm not always sure quite what I'm doing & don't want to make the mapping worse rather than better. (Quick Q - if you draw a new path to a node on an existing path/road when editing does it automatically make the link or do you have to do something else to make the connection so it will be routable?).

[Mick F]

I have two Garmins - Montana and Edge20.

The Montana needs a GPX Track to produce a pink line on the mapping.
I could use a TCX but the Montana then re-navigates to give turn-by-turn directions but not necessarily the exact route I want, so I prefer a GPX Track and follow the pink line. The line is where I want it, not where it thinks I want it.

The Edge20 needs a FIT file. I've installed JaVaWa RTWtool onto my computer to convert any file into FIT.
The Edge20 won't give turn-by-turn directions, just shows a wiggly line on the screen.

[Bmblbzzz]

I use cycle.travel and ridewithgps. They are both good, cycle.travel probably better for touring and leisurely rides. rwgps uses various routing algorithms depending on what map you select; you often have to be very careful with it to avoid getting routed along muddy paths (of course, if you're walking that might be what you want!). Komoot is one I've very briefly dabbled with but heard good things about.

[matt_twam_asi]

For 2 - is that with TCX files? (GPX tracks are polyline-only, GPX routes are turns only, and TCXs are both. I think.)

Maybe I should be more proactive in OSM editing when I find missing links like I mentioned. I'm a bit hesitant as I'm not always sure quite what I'm doing & don't want to make the mapping worse rather than better. (Quick Q - if you draw a new path to a node on an existing path/road when editing does it automatically make the link or do you have to do something else to make the connection so it will be routable?).

iD and JOSM (and maybe Potlatch?) will 'snap' a newly created way to an existing way and make the link automatically. Just make sure you're hovering the pointer over the correct path or road when you click.

There is a new(ish) feature in OSM where you can request a review of your edit when you upload it, if you have any concerns then I would recommend giving it a go. Your edit will still be made but it makes it more likely that someone will check it for any errors. And remember that all edits made in good faith are welcome - even seasoned editors make mistakes.