Stupid question – route planning for car journeys ?

It truly was shit. You miss so many things and cannot plan anything vaguely fun. Dropping onto a tiny side road to take in a view or luscious set of bends was nigh on impossible. You’d essentially be navigating by road sign. And if you do want to freestyle detour for a while you can easily do that with a nav, especially if you plan with POI rather than tracks as you can just bin off a few as required.  Sure browse an analog map. But proper dynamic sat nav has been transformational.

Or the old fashioned method, buy an atlas, work out the route you fancy and follow it – use to work fine for me

SatNav saved my marriage more than once – no way I’m going back to the “I TOLD YOU TO TURN BACK THERE AND YOU DIDN’T LISTEN” days.

It truly was shit. You miss so many things and cannot plan anything…

I used to do epic trips using maps and roadbooks. 2500 miles in 48 hours round Britain, 10 countries in Europe in 72 hours. And navigational night rallies etc. Bloody great fun.

Just FYI, in case you didn’t know – on the Google Maps web site you can drag the route to go where you want it to go. You can also copy the URL to save/share the custom route to other devices.

It was shit. You had to look at driving directions whilst driving.  Bad idea.

I bet there were fewer accidents caused by looking at a map than there are today caused by using a mobile phone. Back in the old days I would often write down some instructions on a slip of paper and tape it to the steering wheel. A bit like having your route on your stem. I actually started using GPS navigation on my bike before using it in the car.

“cannot plan anything vaguely fun”

Where are these fun roads you speak of?

I’ve been using Copilot for over a decade, originally for motorbike trip planning but it’s also our go-to GPS system for the car and walking.

There is a free version, I think. I think buying the maps gets voice commands.

Where are these fun roads you speak of?

Wales.

I bet there were fewer accidents caused by looking at a map than there are today caused by using a mobile phone.

Roads are a lot safer now – nearly 6000 deaths a year start of the 80s, under 1750 last year. Obviously not down to phones, but I’d rather have Google maps telling me where to go through Bluetooth than be glancing to one side for road numbers. Also the Google maps route can take in whatever roads you want to take (not just the big ones that have numbers), and adapt as you go along including for wrong/wonderful what’s down here/dodge a jam turns. It’s a blinking miracle

Outdoor Active (app) does what you want. Start droppings pins on the map and it links them up for you. You can change the route type to motorized(sic) and it’ll stick to roads.

Once you’ve created the route you can either use OA to navigate (does voice guided, turn by turn) or you can export the GPX to another app on your phone, save it and open it from another app, email it to yourself etc.

Works on Open Street Map for free or you can go ‘premium’ and get OS maps for riding.