Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
Ayseven
Posts: 116
Joined: 31 Jul 2021, 4:15am

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by Ayseven »

I find Google pretty good. You can always drag your route to where you want it when planning. That said, I use cycle.travel and Komoot and load those into a Garmin. I end up changing my routes half way anyways, just for scenery or traffic or just because I ignore the turn when it yells at me - I mean "prompts me".
User avatar
RickH
Posts: 5832
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by RickH »

Google maps cycling routes are in my experience absolute bobbins for the most part! It will choose fast (50mph) A roads with not even a painted cycle lane on the one hand & the muddiest of canal towpaths on the other! Sometimes both in the same route! :shock:
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
Nearholmer
Posts: 3929
Joined: 26 Mar 2022, 7:13am

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by Nearholmer »

Well put. That’s why I moved on from it pretty swiftly.
User avatar
lettersquash
Posts: 56
Joined: 14 May 2022, 10:17pm
Contact:

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by lettersquash »

I've been using komoot for years and bought the World map when it was £30. I was really happy with it, although I didn't use it a lot on the bike, I was impressed with one turn-by-turn voice navigation route, including going off the route and it recalculating after a while. I use it mostly for planning routes on the website, where there's more choice of map (although still rather limited). Unfortunately, on the Android app, there's just their own Komoot map unless you go pro, which I resent having to do after buying the World map.

The Facebook-like social side of it I couldn't care less about, and it does increasingly get in the way. I did a run today, planned it in komoot, then exported the gpx file and imported it in Backcountry Navigator (BN). I had little data left and decided to download the area in BN and just put GPS on without data to follow the route manually - worked pretty well, recording my actual route as I followed the line of the planned one. When I got home, I exported back from BN to Komoot, importing it as a tour I'd done (you can import as a planned route), and that's when the social garbage started, the invitations to tell the community about highlights and upload photos. I did, just to try it for the first time, but I'm a solo cyclist and won't be bothering with it generally.

I was thinking I might dump it, but I've changed my mind. I just spent some time looking at alternative apps, and I don't see any with the important feature komoot has of allowing you to add locations to pass through, which is important to edit the choice the AI has made. Google's pretty good because you can just drag the line and it'll recalculate as you do. Komoot also does that with any location you've put on, dragging that node elsewhere, so it has virtually the same feature, also recalculating live on the map so you can see the effect, but you have to put a spot on there first to drag. I'd have to check, but I think this only works online in my browser on the PC both for google and komoot, which is slightly irritating when you want to change your route while you're out.

Komoot also has the option to plan a circuit, rather than asking for a start and destination, so it takes any other locations you add and creates a tour round them back to where you started, great for day trips or multi-day trips.

I've also just figured out that you can override the limitations of cycle route calculation. It will avoid footpaths if you're editing a cycle tour, but you may want to get off and push your bike along a section and then get on again. If you try to fix it by switching to hiking, it changes the whole route, but it seems you can fix this by putting additional points on the footpath into the tour. One point, and it may just take a detour there from the cycle route and then return again, but another nearer the other end of the section can get it to recalculate including the footpath, and it will detail sections where you have to dismount.

It has a lot of method options, actually (although how well it uses them I don't know) - hiking, bike touring, mountain biking, road cycling, running, gravel riding, enduro mountain biking, and mountaineering! For the bike routes, there's also an e-bike tick box. Just a pity the map on yer phone is so naff.
Jdsk
Posts: 24639
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by Jdsk »

Recent discussion: "New Google Maps features for cyclists":
viewtopic.php?t=152349

Jonathan
Bmblbzzz
Posts: 6261
Joined: 18 May 2012, 7:56pm
Location: From here to there.

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by Bmblbzzz »

Ayseven wrote: 5 May 2022, 1:00pm I find Google pretty good. You can always drag your route to where you want it when planning. That said, I use cycle.travel and Komoot and load those into a Garmin. I end up changing my routes half way anyways, just for scenery or traffic or just because I ignore the turn when it yells at me - I mean "prompts me".
A route planner is always good when you already know where you want it!
Ayseven
Posts: 116
Joined: 31 Jul 2021, 4:15am

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by Ayseven »

Course you never know what you actually like until you are there... So that's why the planners are just a guide, not to be followed religiously.
User avatar
TrevA
Posts: 3551
Joined: 1 Jun 2007, 9:12pm
Location: Nottingham

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by TrevA »

In my experience, Google Maps will often dive for the nearest NCN if there’s one nearby. I just did a quick Google from my home town to Newark on Trent. The cycle option routes me via NCN routes 15 and 64 and is 14 miles. The walking route takes me up the old Fosse Road, which is shorter and all cycleable and is 13 miles.
Sherwood CC and Notts CTC.
A cart horse trapped in the body of a man.
http://www.jogler2009.blogspot.com
LittleGreyCat
Posts: 1177
Joined: 7 Aug 2013, 8:31pm

Re: Google maps cycling Vs walking.

Post by LittleGreyCat »

IMHO Google Maps is rubbish for walking.
I was planning a route along the Nidd Gorge yesterday and GM didn't use footpaths and bridle ways, mainly using roads.
I have a subscription to OS and the recent "snap to" feature is far better for planning a walk, and if you just give it start and end points it plots a complete route.
So I'm not a fan of GM at the moment.

For planned cycle rides I use Cycle.Travel but I am subscribed to Komoot because most of my cycling companions use that.
I can move routes between the two and I load GPX or TCX files into my Garmin Edge Explore for on bike navigation.

I haven't tried GM for cycle routes for a long time because it tried to send me down footpaths in the local area, which in general were not cycle friendly (as well as of dubious legality).
Post Reply