Originally Posted by
valygrl
Be careful using google maps "bike" setting - it has too broad a definition of what is passable, it can route you onto hiking trails and dead end roads.
Too right!
There are hundreds of ancient lanes where I live in Yorkshire. They are shown on Google Maps as roads, despite have been originally used by walkers and packhorses. Most of them only go to a few farms. Ok for a mountain bike, but not for a skinny-tyred road bike.
Would you like to ride your fancy 15 pound CF road bike down
London Road?
Satellite navigation systems seem to use the same database. We have countless cases of people being misdirected down them. I blogged about it
here.
There's a particularly scary example which you might enjoy in this
BBC video report! And take heed of the advice of the local man they interviewed - if you can understand his accent!
