Once upon a time, I could photocopy pages from atlases or parts of road maps to create a map of a route I wanted to take, and estimate its length.
With Google maps, I can get only suggested routes-- there doesn’t seem to be a way to construct my own route, and then get the mileage for it.
I want to construct a bike route to work, taking advantage of bike routes in the places where they exist, and also in the diagonal route that cut through town, since I am almost exactly NE of work. I also want to avoid crossing highways, and there is a particular place where I want to cross the White River
It used to be you could move routes over in earlier versions of Google maps, but this doesn’t seem to work anymore.
I know Google maps will give you a bike route if you specify you are going by bike, but I don’t like the route it is giving me. I want to experiment with putting in different roads, and I want to see the mileage for each.
Anyone know how to do that, in Google, or somewhere else?-- something not too expensive.
In Google Maps on the desktop, you do this by asking for regular bike directions first, and then dragging the blue line that it gives you. This creates a waypoint halfway in between, and it’ll follow your route up to that point. You may have to create several such waypoints. It’s not the easiest way to plot a bike course, though, and the resulting custom route is not easy to save or share (there are ways, but they aren’t very reliable). Google also offers a similar “My Maps” editor, but it’s not very well maintained anymore and also isn’t very easy to use and is very barebones: https://www.google.com/maps/d/
I personally prefer using RideWithGPS.com’s route planner, which was made for cyclists and includes a lot of helpful stuff that Google Maps doesn’t have. The basic version is free but there is a paid subscription with more features too. One thing I particularly like about this is the social heatmap generated from ride data of other app users… you can see where the cyclists like to go, like unofficial off-street “social paths” that your community of riders made over time. Often those won’t show up on Google Maps as anything, but you can clearly see the heatmap lines on RideWithGPS and then zoom in for a closer look. It can be anything from a shortcut to a nice segment of road-adjacent unofficial pathways, which are often much safer.
For backpacking and hiking, try CalTopo - Backcountry Mapping Evolved instead for outdoor-specific features (like NPS visitor map overlays, USGS topos, USFS boundaries, terrain slope, etc.).
For more general “interactive” mapping not specifically for cycling or hiking routes, I like Felt.com. It also has a free plan with route-plotting and distance estimations. It’s easier to use than Google Maps for this purpose (as well as for adding other annotations like hotspots to stop at along the way, pictures, notes, etc.). It’s like the Google Docs for mapping, great for collaborative online mapmaking.
Any of these tools can be cross-adapted for any particular activity, but each has strengths specifically suited for the activity they were made for.
Another option is to build your map by picking your first stop close to home, prompt for directions and then create your route in steps by using “add a destination” in the side panel. The issue with that method is you’re limited to 10 steps.
As an example, here’s a ride I like to do where I live, riding from one landmark to another across the town. The default biking directions on Google Maps just has me ride along the major streets (which is probably fine, but boring and full of cars). Instead, I want to make it a long, scenic ride along the bike paths…
It’s generally easier to use, IMHO, although at one point in the middle, you can see me struggling with trying to make it let me ride on the sidewalk the “wrong” direction for half a block.
But in that video, you also see a bunch of bike-specific features, like the elevation and overall mileage chart at the bottom, bike trails both official and unofficial, the community heatmap that helps you find safer bicycle corridors preferred by riders, etc. The ability to peg not just to major roads but paved/unpaved bike trails is especially helpful.
The finished map is easily saved and synced to the app (if you want to navigate while you’re riding), or you can export it as .gpx tracks or whatever for further processing. You can also print it as a step by step cue sheet.
All right-- I’m using Ride with GPS, and it seems great-- great enough that I’m thinking of getting the premium version. Then suddenly, it stops placing the point markers.
I must have done something stupid without realizing it to turn them off, but I can’t figure out what, and anyway, now I can’t make any more maps! help?
I think I’ve got it figured out, and now I love it!
Google maps knows enough not to send me on highways on a bike, but it does not know where there are bike paths in this city, and I do, so I’m always going to choose a road with a bike path over one without.
Some of the bike paths are lanes on the streets, that even have dedicated traffic signals, and some of them are the sidewalks, but the sidewalks that are bike paths are asphalt, and a minimum of six feet wide.
Which they are in a particular area depended on a couple of things-- one was the speed on the roads, and the other was whether the roads of sidewalks could be widened. Sometimes the roads weren’t wide enough, and couldn’t be widened without a major project, like moving water pipes, while it was relatively easy to widen the sidewalks and pave them with asphalt.
My bike has a 500W motor (it can deliver a “peak” output of 1000W, but its steady output of 500W), so it is legal to ride on the bike paths. The statutes for ebikes are written for bike that have a maximum speed of 20mph, or that can go up to 28mph. Mine can go 21.7mph. I don’t know why that odd number, but it is easy to get there.
I doubt cops are checking the speeds of ebikes much, nor busting people for being 1.7mph too fast. The way the statutes are written, though, it is hard to classify my bike looking strictly at the wording.
Duh. Of course. 35kmph is probably the equivalent of 25mph here-- the default for speeds in neighborhoods and other heavy foot-traffic areas. I ride in a lot of places here where the speed limit is 25, and the way cars roar past me and speed of, I know the are going faster than 25.
Indianapolis has the worst drivers-- everyone thinks they are Michael Andretti. I’ve driven in New York City, LA, Washington, DC, Athens, Santorini in the summer & London. Indy is the worst.
No, but all the affordable ones are. The ones made in the US cost thousand of dollars. Mine cost about $500. It has a Chinese frame, but all the moving parts-- brakes, derailleur, are Shimano, one of the best brands of parts you can get. The seat, and other inert parts, like the saddle (which I changed anyway) weren’t branded, and the motor I didn’t recognize, but I looked it up, and it is considered reliable and safe.
Also, the one question I had to email the manufacturer about, got answered correctly within 6 hours.
