Tue 04-03-2007
Being able to map out a ride, either before or after you do it, is a very useful (and fun) capability. Here are a few of the online bicycle route mapping services I’ve tried:
- Gmaps Pedometer – One of the oldest and the best; elevation capabilities are crude
- Routeslip – Can add turn-by-turn directions to create a cue sheet; decent elevation functionality, but is not visible until a route is saved; also calculates amount of climbing in route
- MapMyRide – Slick, with live and detailed elevation graph, can also use the site to keep a training journal
- Bikely – Australian-centric mapper; no elevation display; nice cue sheet support
- TopoRoute – Has a cool (but slow) feature where routes automatically follow curves in the road; elevation graphing is detailed (but not very attractive)
- Running Map – Made for runners, but also works for cyclists; elevation graph is live, but is based on waypoints, not actual road
- Favorite Run – Another runners site that works for cyclists; no elevation display
- VeloRoutes
- GeoDistance
- MapItPronto
- Sanoodi
- Wayfaring
Most of these are built on Google Maps, and feature the same basic interface. I haven’t found one that’s perfect yet. Mostly I use Gmaps Pedometer and RouteSlip. I just found MapMyRide, so I need to play with it a bit more before deciding whether it’s worth staying with.
I haven’t found any site that really does a good job with the elevation tracking. Here’s what I want:
- Live elevation – Don’t make me wait until the route is saved before showing me the hills (are you listening, Routeslip?)
- Reasonable detail – Show the elevation of the road between waypoints, not just the elevations of the waypoints
- Don’t make me scroll horizontally to see the entire graph; auto-scale the graph as the route is entered
- Allow me to click on the graph to highlight that point on the route (so I can see exactly where that big hill is!)
- Allow me to check the grade of a given hill
- Show me average grade of an entire route or of a particular section
One final thing: I wish there was an easy way to add a static image of the route to a web page, that links back to the live route. Now, the only way to do that is to take a screenshot, crop and resize, upload it to the web server, then manually link to the saved route. That’s quite bit of work, and it should be a one-step process.
[...] Here is a good list of mapping sites. [...]
Pingback by Ride Lugged » Bicycle (Or Horse) Mapping Sites Compared — April 9, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
Hi-
Jeff from MapMyRide here. Thanks for checking out our site and reviewing it here. As for the feature you’re looking for, re: adding a route to a website, check out our “Add this route to your blog” feature, and it sounds like just what you’re looking for.
Comment by Jeff — April 13, 2007 @ 12:39 am
Yes, I was aware of that, and it works pretty well. Actually, it’s an attractive and incredibly simple way to add a map to a blog. But it’s not quite what I’m looking for.
I had three problems with the embedded live map. First, I’d like to see the entire route at once; as it is, I see only a portion of the route, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to tweak that. Second, there’s no zoom capability on the live map. Third, I’d prefer that there were a bit less extraneous info surrounding the map.
I’ll play around with it some more, and perhaps it’ll grow on me, but I suspect I’ll just need to make my own static images that link to the live map.
Comment by RecumBum — April 13, 2007 @ 10:19 am