MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Today I need to ride from Epsom to Kingston.
I don’t want to ride on the main road. Previously I have seen some signs on back roads with a bike and an arrow to Kingston. Obviously this must be part of some sort of cycle route.
How do I find a map of these routes?
Many hours of searching council websites hasn’t worked.
Try Sustrans
Edit: just popped over there. They've changed the map recently and it only shows NCN routes now. That's a bit of a retrograde step.
https://cycle.travel/
I havent used it for a while, but that site used to be good for avoiding main roads.
I've used cycle.travel a good few times with success.
Open Cycle Map
Strava? Create Route, Use popularity. You can either take what it tells you or look at the Heatmap and route manually. Although I wonder if some roads are more popular than they should be due to being part of the Ride London route?
Try Komoot.
As above, I use Strava for such things. It's not perfect but it does a good enough job for me when riding in strange locations. Garmin Connect does similar too.
Doesn't always give me good results locally, but have you tried "quietest route" option on https://www.cyclestreets.net/ ?
Cycle Travel is pretty good but can come up with some weird results ignoring obvious cycle routes which are displayed on the background mapping. Epsom to Kingston seems to work nicely though.
You can then export a GPX file to upload to your GPS if you use one.
It's not so good going the other way. If you upload a GPX into Cycle Travel it will modify the route to go the way it thinks you should! Still it's a good start and it has features like accommodation along the route, not that you'll be needing a B&B.
my concern with strava heatmap is that as far as am aware can't filter by time of day (and to push point size of group)..round my way what looks like group rides early morning on quiet because very early roads contribute a lot...roads that I wouldn't go near as a solo rider after everyone has woken up with a hangover and needs to go shopping / eating are over represented
OCM Cycle maps have the national cycle network highlighted.
Google maps have an option to highlight cycle routes, which is mostly local and city options.
Google Streetview for checking any roads you're unsure about.
Bikehike.co.uk is ok. It will tell you if there is a cycle lane and highlight other cycle paths. THe one thing it won't do is help you differentiate between roads where there are no facilities.
Google directions does know which routes are more common with cyclists.
I am glad it isn’t only me who now finds the Sustrans map significantly less useful than it used to be.
+1 for Cycle Streets, I tend to opt for the "balanced" route.