TiHabanero

I found bikemaps.com last night and found it interesting. I put in two addresses and it produced a route from point a to point b on the other side of the country. I assume the route is a compilation of input from users having ridden to a similar destination.

Has anyone used this website and the route prescribed for a cross country ride?

Paul Barnard

I don't know anything about it, but I love tinkering with maps and it's raining today, so I am off to explore the site. Thanks for the link.

tyrion

It would be interesting to compare bikemaps.com suggested routes with google maps suggested bike routes.

CliffordK

I went to the website, and it seems to only supply printed maps of the New England area.

Certainly nothing dynamic like the big route companies like Strava or RideWithGPS or MapMyRide.

spinnaker

My guess they would all be very similar as most of these mapping sites use the google maps api.

tyrion

That bikemaps.com looks like a pretty "old school" operation, like it's based on someone's first hand experience.

spinnaker

The GUIs are custom but the mapping / routingvery well could be coming from google.

mev

Did you perhaps intend to say "bikemap.net" instead of "bikemaps.com"? I haven't used it, but it more closely matches your description of providing two addresses to plot a route.

adamrice 

I have to say, I've used Google Maps to plot an in-town route, and it was shockingly good, seeming to show real insider knowledge, like "cut through this parking lot, then cut through this other parking lot and get onto this street that empties into it" -- this was specifically for travel by bike. Traveling between the same two points by car, and it shows a completely different, and perfectly conventional route.

indyfabz

All good and fine if you are taking a tour in town. I have looked at it for places out west and it can be shockingly bad, sometimes selecting roads that are not really roads, at least not anymore. And sometimes It will send you out of the way so you can ride a short section of bike trail.

jpescatore

Tried bikemap.net for a ride 60 mile one way ride I did earlier in the year and planned with a mix of my knowledge of local roads and Google maps here in central Maryland.

Bikemap.net was not identical to the Google maps default, but pretty close. Google maps gave an alternative bike route that was closer to what I chose, but still included a long section of road that I generally choose not to use because of narrow road, low visibility, high speed cars, etc. - there are much more fun alternates that don't add much horizontal or vertical distance.

First glance didn't show much value over Google maps, but maybe some "wisdom of the crowds" will show up in routing if more people use? Or maybe the paid version would have benefit.