I'm finding RidewithGPS to be a big improvement on Strava route planner in every respect except the lack of heatmap (because I'm not yet a subscriber).
However it seems to have some sort of baffling algorithm where I'm trying to plot through towns or along roads and RWGPS tries to take every little sidestreet or alley rather than just following the road directly, I'm guessing this is a 'cycle friendly' approach.
I can't see any obvious way to turn it off though?
I switch on the fly between car / bike / walk planning (the icons on the RHS) as that tunes the auto route to those types of travel.
Assuming you're in 'route planner', there's a pane on the right where you choose 'routing mode'; cycle, walk, car, straight line. That's what controls 'snap to'.
What they said
Echo the above, swtich between Car, Bike, Walk etc. I'd add, make use of "control points", they can really enhance a route, especially a longer one.
And lastly, worth noting, that the routing algorythm is dependend on the background map layer currently slected. So, for identical points, you'll get a different result if you have the standard rwgps layer compared to if you have the opencycle map selcted.
Personally, my usual workflow, is to plan the initial route with Cycle.Travel, then exportt the gpx file to rwgps for some final tweaking. Cycle.Travel routing is pretty much spot on for selecting quiet, enjoyable roads, that I like, but has a tendency to be over the top in avoiding busy roads. So occasionally, will give a long diversion, round about route, to avoid 100m on a busy A-road. These I tweak out in rwgps.
Maybe its not available on the free version but check if you can expand this drop down to choose surface type.
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I just checked using RWGPS and OSM Cycle layers and it seems fairly accurate, although paved didn't seem to want to follow national cycle routes where they are just one block over from the busier roads.
Ah great thanks guys, I'll play with toggling between Drive, Cycle and Walk. If you switch modes in Strava it reroutes the whole route so was very wary of doing same in RWGPS!
RWGPS you can switch everything wherever. I sometimes switch to walk mode when it refuses to snap to a bridleway, I’ll switch to paved road if I’m adding a road bit and don’t want it to take me round the houses. And the straight line is useful when you want to plot where there is no marked trail I.e if you are following unofficial trails
RWGPS you can switch everything wherever. I sometimes switch to walk mode when it refuses to snap to a bridleway, I’ll switch to paved road if I’m adding a road bit and don’t want it to take me round the houses. And the straight line is useful when you want to plot where there is no marked trail I.e if you are following unofficial trails
Yep, I see that now, another big improvement over Strava (straight line is equivalent to Strava 'manual mode).
As an aside I was developing a sneaking suspicion that someone had been meddling with the OpenStreetMap maps as some tracks which previously snapped fine on Strava now don't, as if someone had changed 'track' to 'footpath' or something. RWGPS is generally better for this, clearly has s broader range of tracks that it will snap to.
Yes I sometimes fix trails on openstreetmap but sometimes they get edited back not permissible to bikes or an imaginary stile is added, which breaks the routing again.