Maps
Maps
Which are you using?
For most things (day trips, few km after work...) I use multiple of them.
- online and offline mobile app
- trip planner works pretty well
- you can check out places (photos, reviews...) when online
- well maped whole Europe
- not enough information about roads (asphalt, paved, gravel...)
- basically interactive version of KČT maps
- can't find app
- basic planner, but better for drawing your route
- much more helpful info about roads
- it is just automatically scaled paper map, so you have to know how to read it
Osm clients - I tried multiple of them.
Paper maps - from the same company that makes the Cycloserver maps. You can get set of them for about 100€ (CZ not sure about SK). There is just something special about planning trip on paper maps.
Sherpa has been a helpful tool.
Looks nice.
Unfortunately for my location and usecase it is not that useful. Map overlays are main issue -there is just not enough info . G-maps are shit, and basic OSM cyclo map is still limited compared to my picks (some mobile OSM clients solve it by showing more layers).
Maybe for checking my planed route but not for planning. But for US or other locations this may be useful tool.
It's also based on OpenStreetMap. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of OsmAnd, but in return it offers a cleaner UI.
And then of course there's no beating brouter for route planning so sometimes I plan the route on PC (or the mobile site!) and import the track to Organic Maps. Mostly I don't bother though as OM routing is pretty good too.
And hey, since all of these tools rely on OpenStreetMap data, let's not forget StreetComplete for contributing! E.g. there's an easy overlay for marking cycleways.
And hey, since all of these tools rely on OpenStreetMap data,
By the way, I have in my area a road that is very dangerous for bicycles because it goes through several unlit tunnels. It's a former single railway line turned into a one-lane, one-way road; most cars enter the tunnels way over the allowed max speed without seeing at all what is inside.
All routing tools based on OpenStreetMap insist on routing through this road, despite the fact that there is another (larger) road on the other bank of the river. They just go in parallel 25 yards away for each other.
A couple of years ago, I edited OpenStreetMap data to mark the tunnel with "lit=no".
But that was in vain, routing tools don't take this parameter into account and keep routing bicycles through the (smaller) dangerous road. They prefer to route through the smaller road, which is generally the right choice, but not at all in the present case.
Does someone know if/how I can mark this road as "non-suitable for bicycles although they are allowed there"?
There's no one tag to do this but a combination of mapping the negative sides of the tunnel road and the positive sides of the bigger road should be enough.
Some ideas:
- cycleway=no for the tunnel road and perhaps something like cycleway=shoulder for the bigger road
- Maybe the bigger road has better asphalt? Tagging smoothness values of both can help.
- Are there official cycle routes going through? Many routers take these very seriously. Note that it may be that there's an outdated route mapped through the tunnel road.
I've found Komoot and Organic Maps to be my favorites. The former for tour/long ride routing and the latter for everyday commuting. They're both using OpenStreetMaps behind the scenes which, for the region I normally ride in, is fantastic. Google Maps lacks a lot of the paths/surface information that OSM has, meaning the routes that Komoot/Organic Maps come up with are generally the preferable options.
I use brouter for planning a route at home. I plot a route that i then use as an overlay in OsmAnd on my phone and then route my daily segments on the go (with the brouter as a routing engine for OsmAnd, offline routing). I only plan the big route, no daily segments, probably will have a plan for the first day though when i start.
There's also the cycloroute render style for OsmAnd, i like the look of it, but i got so used to OsmAnd default rendering that i just keep using that.
In cities i use google maps for shops and stuff because osm data is kind of lacking in that regards i think.
I like having a paper map too, just to have a better feeling of where i am and what is where, i don't think a phone screen is great for that. Especially when i'm making routes up on the go. Nice souvenir too, if you buy a map on the road. I've also been sending paper maps home when i rode out of its boundaries, so i don't need to carry it along.
There's also cycle.travel which many people seem to like. IGN must have a very good (paid) app for France. There's an IGN layer in brouter too for France. Michelin has "scenic routes" and "dangerous roads" marked, i have used this sometimes but also really only good in France.
Yeah, nearly the same here. Brouter-web for planning + overpass queries to find infrastructure POIs (drinking_water, supermarket).
On the go: OSMand installed via F-Droid, following the gpx track or routing with brouter on my phone.
I've got a routing profile for following designated bike routes (luckily quite plentiful in Germany) and one that concentrates on good surface conditions for bad weather set up in brouter that are bound to two different profiles in OSMand.
I'm switching in and out of the cycloroute style on OSMand. It's useful for planning, but on the bike I'm not used enough to it to interpret it at a glance.
I will give a brouter a try it looks more feature rich than openstreetmap.cz
I've been impressed with how well cyclers.app works in my part of the US. It does a great job routing me to avoid car traffic even in suburban Texas.