A few friends and I are thinking about the concept of commuter bike trains (but probably not what you're thinking I mean by that) which is where one person takes their normal route to work (or home) and is joined by others along the way to form a train and as you reach your cutoff, you peal off and the others continue.

We'd like to share our routes with others in our city so that others can join us. We each live in different areas, work in different areas so each of our routes are distinct. I'd like to find a way to plot our routes on one map online so that others can see and know where we are going (and when we reach certain points so they know when to join us). However, Google Maps doesn't allow enough layers for us unless there are options I'm not familiar with.

Does anyone know of any options for us?

Us aft.org/routes/map. Damn autocorrect, that's usatf.org

Uh, USA Track and Field?

yes. You can create a route, save it and then share the link with your fellow riders.

You can mark multiple polylines in Google Earth, save them off individually as .kml files.

And when you said "commuter bike train" I thought what you meant. I read an interesting article once about the declining practice of children riding bikes to school. Many schools are prohibiting it due to (ridiculous) liability concerns, but in some neighborhoods they organize "bike trains" that ride through a neighborhood to a school at a scheduled time, chaperoned by one or more adults, picking up more and more kids along they way as they pass their houses. It sounds like a fantastic amount of fun.

You can create and share routes among followers using Strava, although not necessarily giving the overlay you wish.

If you all pass each other sometime, (perhaps meet at a designated coffee shop), then the "flyby" feature on Strava is also cool.

I use strava routes.

Create a group in strava and share the routes there.

The overlay you speak of would probably need to be done in a flat file static map of the routes you guys choose.

Still, a strava group would be good to show who is doing the route each day and when you left, allowing others to see the activity, plan, and join the group.

Austin Bike Buddy - open source civic project to connect bike commuters by route:
Site seems to be down at the moment. The developer's page and contact info is included below:
Website Helps Austin Bicycle Commuters Find a 'Bike Buddy' | KUT
https://github.com/open-austin/Civic...bike-buddy.yml

my experience on the subject: starting in March I had this same idea, and I know at least a couple riders in my immediately home area who I thought would like to join up. I posted on every cycling group I'm a part of and even chatted individually with people in-person and online, but at the end of the day, it never came together.

the issue is that there is too much variation in people's routes, and I found when people are commuting, most don't want to add miles to go out of their way even a little, OR they are like me and are going WAY out of their way on purpose to get extra miles. add the fact that abilities are ALL over the board, and it's just tough. I catch and pass the same cyclists every morning, and I always say hi and good morning, and offer to let them grab a wheel, but they don't usually, or they can't hang on.

Good old fashioned map on a piece of paper and a few different colored highlighters should do the trick.

^^ What He said^^ the Maps printed in other countries [EU/UK] are a Lot better, though the free state DOT maps in the US are OK.

We get cartons of the Pacific Coast route and state wide bike suggested roads Maps to pass out to cyclists, at my LBS

I'm not sure I follow the concept. I encounter hundreds of bike commuters along my route. Would this enhancement have me talking to them instead of not talking to them, which is what I currently do?

I think the enhancement would have you all intentionally meeting up and riding together.

I'm just not that friendly. I have no problem giving a head nod to a cyclist on the other side of the street, but I'd rather ride alone and listen to my podcasts than talk to strangers.

Oh, but you can always meet the strangers. Crank it up to 500W and leave them in the dust... then quickly take a corner so they don't see you're toasted.

I have an electric motor for that.
Of course you can't tell the bike is electric, which is part of the fun.

Actually, I do like making friends or riding with existing friends. My problem is the opposite of most people. We don't have a shortage of bike commuters here. We have a surplus. Last night, it was a sea of people on my horizon.