GPS / App route Guidance used audibly ?

[steveindenmark]

I tried cycle.travel a while back and was not too impressed by it for the type of riding that I do. Then 6 months ago I needed a quick route compiling so decided to give it another try. Like you say, I tapped on my start point and my finish point 30km away. It came up with a fantastic gravel route I wouldn't have discovered otherwise and all completely fault free.

I was so impressed I tried again earlier this year, again tapped a start and finish point, this time it created a 75km route which was amazing, in fact it's one of my favourite gravel routes. So whilst I generally agree with @steveindenmark to be cautious, the two cycle.travel gravel routes I've created with cycle.travel have been flawless. Which reminds me, I owe Richard a coffee or two.

I will try it. Can you transfer the route to other devices?

 

[ColinJ]

I will try it. Can you transfer the route to other devices?

Yes! (Various options, including exporting to a GPX file, which should work with everything.)

 

[Dogtrousers]

I was so impressed I tried again earlier this year, again tapped a start and finish point, this time it created a 75km route which was amazing, in fact it's one of my favourite gravel routes. So whilst I generally agree with @steveindenmark to be cautious, the two cycle.travel gravel routes I've created with cycle.travel have been flawless. Which reminds me, I owe Richard a coffee or two.

Yes, routing algorithms are getting better, and cycle.travel throws up some nice routes. But I agree that caution is advised and you should always check. The longer the route the more likely it is that there will be sections that can be improved to your taste.

For example, at the weekend I was planning a route from (roughly) Hemel Hempstead to Southam in Warwickshire. As an experiment I just put the end points in to see what happened (I normally plan short stretches at a time). The planning tool I was using came back eagerly and said "You'll love this route. I've maximised the distance on traffic free paths". I looked at the route and replied: "That's nice, but have you seen where these traffic free paths are? You've taken me through the middle of Milton Keynes, you idiot".

It got all huffy with me and said "Well then, you should have checked the 'avoid soulless post-war new towns' button shouldn't you?"

(True story except for the dialogue)

 

[ColinJ]

Yes, routing algorithms are getting better, and cycle.travel throws up some nice routes. But I agree that caution is advised and you should always check. The longer the route the more likely it is that there will be sections that can be improved to your taste.

I always check now.

Cycle.travel once took me onto a really nice little Devon lane near Crediton which I had completely overlooked when scanning the local OS map. The only problem is that there is a ford down there and the whole stretch of road gets flooded in wet weather. Of course, I went down there after a long period of heavy rain...

BUT... I am back in the area and it has been really dry for weeks so I that road should be fine now. I will go and take a look later this afternoon.

 

[chriswoody]

I will try it. Can you transfer the route to other devices?

Sorry for not replying earlier, I've been travelling. As mentioned by ColinJ it does work nicely on other devices, I easily transferred the route to my Edge Explore 2 and it worked just fine. I can't comment on Wahoo, but I've no reason to suspect it would be any different to my Garmin experience.

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

It got all huffy with me and said "Well then, you should have checked the 'avoid soulless post-war new towns' button shouldn't you?"

Ah, Buckinghamshire… where you have a choice between "twisty minor roads infested by Audis doing 60mph around blind corners" and "Milton Keynes". Tough one for any routing algorithm. Maybe I should just have an "avoid Buckinghamshire" option?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Ah, Buckinghamshire… where you have a choice between "twisty minor roads infested by Audis doing 60mph around blind corners" and "Milton Keynes". Tough one for any routing algorithm. Maybe I should just have an "avoid Buckinghamshire" option?

I have friends in Warwickshire, so I often ride through Buckinghamshire. It's not that bad. These days we drive as far as Hemel where my wife drops me off. In the past I when was a tough guy I used to ride up all the way through central London, but I've given up on that. It also means my wife has a navigator/copilot for the M11/M25/M1 drive to Hemel which she appreciates.

For my upcoming ride I'm planning to go through Buckingham itself. This involves about 10km along the A413 London Rd S of Buckingham. My records show I've ridden this twice before. I don't remember it so it can't have been particularly hideous. Also Streetview shows it has a cycle path most of the way so I may give that a go.

Edit. According to this https://robmcminn.uk/2017/10/14/buckingham-winslow-cycle-path/ The Buckingham to Winslow cycle path is a bit rubbish. Or at least, is strewn with rubbish and has many give-ways.

 

[mjr]

Ah, Buckinghamshire… where you have a choice between "twisty minor roads infested by Audis doing 60mph around blind corners" and "Milton Keynes". Tough one for any routing algorithm. Maybe I should just have an "avoid Buckinghamshire" option?

Milton Keynes is fine. It's being a bit too fond of routing through the city centre that is cycle.travel's problem. That's probably the fault of both Sustrans, as their routings of NCN 6 and 51 through the city are delightful meanders past lakes, parks and shops, which are lovely for tourism but a bit rubbish for transport and ultimately they're not called Sustour; and of the City Council (or possibly us open street mappers) because the old "fast" routes (H8, V4 and so on) have not kept up with recent construction so are incomplete with recent extensions indistinguishable from estate internal routes and so the winding NCN gets preferred.

But you probably can't win. I know from experimenting with routing software that if you weight local routes stronger than the NCN, then journeys across London start doing some rather strange things as software starts preferring the old LCN or the newer (but often slow) Quietways to decent through routes.

 

[cyberknight]

i know garmin connect can give you audible prompts via your phone if you have a garmin gps device that supports the feature

 

[ColinJ]

BUT... I am back in the area and it has been really dry for weeks so I that road should be fine now. I will go and take a look later this afternoon.

All the roads were dry today but I was mistaken about the lane with the ford. Today's lane had been horribly muddy on a previous ride (only some dried mud/dust/gravel today) but it wasn't the one that I was thinking about.

I will go out on ford hunt again later in the week!