Cycletravel why use it.

[Andy in Germany]

How do we know it avoids hills?

I was curious so tried it on a part of the Rhine valley I know well: the valley is very flat except for one extinct volcano which is very steep. Clicking on the west and east extremity of the volcano caused it to automatically find the shortest route around it, but when I dragged the destination into a valley that leads to the old crater, it jumped to a more direct route over the pass.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Thanks for that, what a great thread.

It's certainly been interesting. I think I'm now pretty well informed about what CT does (and doesn't) do. Far better than I was before anyway, but still short of expert.

One thing I've noticed is that it definitely has a personality. It tends to be a bit "skittish", like a nervous horse that shies at crisp packets imagining them to be lions. A couple of examples from a 33km test route that I created.

I don't understand the first one. Wickham Way is a quiet suburban road. Possibly 20 limit (I'm not sure) so I have no idea why it avoided that short stretch. (By the way the 10 is a distance marker not a via point. I haven't accidentally edited the route to do this. This is straight from the algorithm)

The second one I think I understand. There's a crossing on London Road with a pedestrian refuge in the centre. It's possible that the algorithm has interpreted it as a (very) short stretch of dual carriageway and pressed the "avoid at all costs" button.

Both would be easy to edit out on a second pass.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Another thing you can do in cycle.travel, if others aren’t aware, is create folders for your rides and tours. Proved really useful for organising and pulling up possible route options during my recent tours.

View attachment 724319

And, you can get a composite map of all the routes in a folder!

(thanks to @HobbesOnTour for this, and, if I'm absolutely honest, pretty much every other tip I've offered on cycle.travel)

 

[roubaixtuesday]

It's certainly been interesting. I think I'm now pretty well informed about what CT does (and doesn't) do. Far better than I was before anyway, but still short of expert.

One thing I've noticed is that it definitely has a personality. It tends to be a bit "skittish", like a nervous horse that shies at crisp packets imagining them to be lions. A couple of examples from a 33km test route that I created.
View attachment 724320
I don't understand the first one. Wickham Way is a quiet suburban road. Possibly 20 limit (I'm not sure) so I have no idea why it avoided that short stretch. (By the way the 10 is a distance marker not a via point. I haven't accidentally edited the route to do this. This is straight from the algorithm)

The second one I think I understand. There's a crossing on London Road with a pedestrian refuge in the centre. It's possible that the algorithm has interpreted it as a (very) short stretch of dual carriageway and pressed the "avoid at all costs" button.

Both would be easy to edit out on a second pass.

It does this a lot; the algorithm seems to have a very strong preference for less busy roads, even when the "busy" one is a really lovely quiet rural road, or as in your case, when detouring off it just dumps you straight back on again almost immediately.

You either have to correct all the foibles yourself, or simply ignore the little detours when riding.

 

[Andy in Germany]

It's certainly been interesting. I think I'm now pretty well informed about what CT does (and doesn't) do. Far better than I was before anyway, but still short of expert.

One thing I've noticed is that it definitely has a personality. It tends to be a bit "skittish", like a nervous horse that shies at crisp packets imagining them to be lions. A couple of examples from a 33km test route that I created.
View attachment 724320
I don't understand the first one. Wickham Way is a quiet suburban road. Possibly 20 limit (I'm not sure) so I have no idea why it avoided that short stretch. (By the way the 10 is a distance marker not a via point. I haven't accidentally edited the route to do this. This is straight from the algorithm)

The second one I think I understand. There's a crossing on London Road with a pedestrian refuge in the centre. It's possible that the algorithm has interpreted it as a (very) short stretch of dual carriageway and pressed the "avoid at all costs" button.

Both would be easy to edit out on a second pass.

I've noticed similar, sometimes going around cycle routes I know work. I think that's down to the difference in classification between such routes in the UK and other European countries, but it's a minor thing and easily checked and/or ignored.

 

[Emanresu]

I use RWGPS but also use CT to check if there is an alternative route. I pay for one and support the other ( as users should IMHO) I like that I can import the CT route and overlay it on the RWGPS one to check the options.

The app is only as good as the underlying map. Early versions suffered from a lack of updates so routes could be ‘interesting’. RWGPS wanted to send me up some quite steep hills in Northern Spain last year but CT didn’t. Like all tools it’s how you use them

 

[Slick]

Ah, its like welcoming back an old friend.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Tried the hill avoidance thing. Can match the climbing by dragging to shorter route. That requires a short bit of trunk A road compared to the A road picked cycle travel. But as said upthread, these tools give you a quick starter for ten then adjust as necessary.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I'm preparing to move house for a new job. Currently using Cycle Travel to work out practical commuting distances so I know where to look for an apartment.

 

[Cathryn]

I'd a cousin who did that, on his one and only cycle tour.
Start times, hourly distance, time of stops. Where they'd be eating. He did however miss out the simple things like the terrain isn't always flat, or that it might rain(Which when it did, it "rained".), but the timetable didn't allow for stopping for weather.

It was only "that far" on the map!

We’ve all made that mistake!

 

[8mph]

God knows how they came up with such a cool algorithm but I really like it. You basically type in where you are and where you want to go and it'll do the rest for you. It's never put me wrong and picks out lovely scenic routes.

 

[8mph]

I'm preparing to move house for a new job. Currently using Cycle Travel to work out practical commuting distances so I know where to look for an apartment.

be sure to set it to paved only @Andy in Germany

 

[Ming the Merciless]

be sure to set it to paved only @Andy in Germany

I did an off road commute for years 😁

 

[8mph]

I did an off road commute for years 😁

I forgot about the "paved only" tab for one section of a tour and had to ride this bike

through a vineyard and eventually this track

luckily the subsequent 3 sections didn't have any off road sections!

 

[SafetyThird]

Questions about getting streetview option to show up. Using my iPad as I’m away from laptop for a couple of weeks and I’m playing with cycle.travel. With cycle.travel running in the browser, If i long press on a point in a route, I only get the the following options

If I use the cycle.travel app, I get this option when I hold on a point on the map

What am I missing to get the street view option?