OP
OP
BlueFox
Well-Known Member
I've now had a look at several of these GPX journey planners. Some seem to be good at certain things but bad at others and vice versa.
The most useful maps for cyclists seem to be Open Cycle Map in urban areas and Ordinance Survey in the countryside.
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/ has a really nice route planning interface and uses both ordinance survey and open cycle maps and it seems very easy to use, but it has one huge deficiency - it doesn't seem to follow cycle paths between waypoints - it will only follow roads! So not much use for cycle route planning.
CycleStreets is good if you just want a route automatically plotted between A and B but it doesn't seem to let you create your own route.
Strava has a nice looking route planner but it only uses Google maps. You can swap in other map with veloviewer but the map swapping looks quite clunky and no longer has Ordinance Survey maps.
I had a look at Trailzilla (which is the route planner for memory maps) - but you have to register an account to try it out. When tried to do this, it wouldn't let me register, claiming that it already had an account for my email address but when I tried to reset the password it claimed it didn't have an account with my email address.
So far it looks like the best of the lot is http://www.gpxeditor.co.uk/ as it:
a) allows you choose between google maps, open street map, open cycle map and ordinance survey (1 in 50,000) at the click of a button
b) allows you to plot your route in by putting in a small number of way points that create route segments (automatically) generated with your choice of i) walking, ii) cycling, iii) driving (plus a few others) routes. So if you select cycling it will try to follow quiet roads and cycle paths between each pair of waypoints. (I presume the walking options favors footpaths but haven't tried it yet.)
GPXeditor user interface is a little clunky (not as neat as http://www.bikehike.co.uk/ one) but it does the job. The GPX files don't seem to include elevation so you have to add with http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation.
But I'm really surprised that there isn't a market leader GPX cycle router planner with: 1/ a neat user interface, 2) choice of maps (including open cycle map and ordinance survey), 3/ includes elevation, 4/ automatically generates an appropriate route between waypoints (which you can undo easily if it isn't the route you want) so you can build your route using a small number of waypoints.
The most useful maps for cyclists seem to be Open Cycle Map in urban areas and Ordinance Survey in the countryside.
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/ has a really nice route planning interface and uses both ordinance survey and open cycle maps and it seems very easy to use, but it has one huge deficiency - it doesn't seem to follow cycle paths between waypoints - it will only follow roads! So not much use for cycle route planning.
CycleStreets is good if you just want a route automatically plotted between A and B but it doesn't seem to let you create your own route.
Strava has a nice looking route planner but it only uses Google maps. You can swap in other map with veloviewer but the map swapping looks quite clunky and no longer has Ordinance Survey maps.
I had a look at Trailzilla (which is the route planner for memory maps) - but you have to register an account to try it out. When tried to do this, it wouldn't let me register, claiming that it already had an account for my email address but when I tried to reset the password it claimed it didn't have an account with my email address.
So far it looks like the best of the lot is http://www.gpxeditor.co.uk/ as it:
a) allows you choose between google maps, open street map, open cycle map and ordinance survey (1 in 50,000) at the click of a button
b) allows you to plot your route in by putting in a small number of way points that create route segments (automatically) generated with your choice of i) walking, ii) cycling, iii) driving (plus a few others) routes. So if you select cycling it will try to follow quiet roads and cycle paths between each pair of waypoints. (I presume the walking options favors footpaths but haven't tried it yet.)
GPXeditor user interface is a little clunky (not as neat as http://www.bikehike.co.uk/ one) but it does the job. The GPX files don't seem to include elevation so you have to add with http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation.
But I'm really surprised that there isn't a market leader GPX cycle router planner with: 1/ a neat user interface, 2) choice of maps (including open cycle map and ordinance survey), 3/ includes elevation, 4/ automatically generates an appropriate route between waypoints (which you can undo easily if it isn't the route you want) so you can build your route using a small number of waypoints.
