Forum menu
Just noticed that cycle paths and directions are now an option on google maps, doesn't seem to be fully working just yet, will be pretty cool when it does.
Been there a few weeks I think (for Europe at least)? Sure I saw an article about it somewhere, but I forget if it was a bike related or tech related site.
As you say, it's still a "work in progress".
Yeah. Since July.
General conclusion seems to be that CycleStreets/BikeHub is still considerably better.
http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/google-maps-vs-cyclestreets-battle-for-the-best-route-planner/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jul/12/google-maps-uk-cycle-routes
CTC, and a few other places, mentioned it. I've contacted Google about some oddities I'd noticed, they investigated and are in the process of changing the map to show better represent what it looks like on the ground.
Just trying it out with a few place names seems to work ok in the UK but the routing doesn't seem to work at all in Germany 🙁 Hopefully they will get it sorted by next spring, it could work well for some spur of the moment touring.
That's pretty much my experience. Handy overlay to see which roads might be good/bad.
edit: there's some odd gaps in the trails in the forest too. Not a massive show stopper, since in most cases it shows up as fireroad/schneise anyway, but the green bit suddenly stops in some odd places.
OpenCycleMap is way way more detailed for offroad trails. If anything, too detailed, since there's so many (labelled) trails. Never tried routing, although some of the map export files for Garmin devices do apparently support that.