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Internet cycle route planner mooted for UK
Help the idea out by filling in a quick questionnaire...
Peter Andrews at the Bristol-based cycle promotion charity Life Cycle UK has been asked by the DfT (the UK Government's Department for Transport) to look into the potential of Internet-based
journey planning for cyclists.
He says:
******
We envisage something like this:
- You want to make a journey by bike. You go to the Internet and type in the address of the journey planner.
- You then tell the planner where you want to go from and to, and any particular preferences about the route (such as 'traffic free paths' or 'as direct as possible') and the planner will produce a route for you which you then follow on your bike.
We want to get the views of as many potential users as possible. I would appreciate it enormously if you could complete one of our questionnaires and ask your Colleagues/friends/members to do the same. To make it easy, we've put the questionnaire on a website
www.cyclejourneyplanner.org.uk
It takes just a few minutes!
*******
I've already done it myself, and also directed them to the existing cycle route planner in the Netherlands. I'm pretty sure there's one for Germany, too, but can't find it just now. Any reader have the link?
Posted on 14 May 2004
Your comments ...| From: Craig Wrigglesworth ([email protected]) on 14 May 2004 |
| I haven't had much chance to read the article but there is a link to a German route planner in this article http://www.abcverlag.de/fileadmin/premium/2004/gis/29-34.pdf is this the one you were thinking of Peter? (search for www. to find the link) |
| From: David Gardiner ([email protected].) on 14 May 2004 |
I did it at Chris Hoy speed and it took me about 12 mins. Can anyone beat this? I did type a couple of things in fields. I seemed to use 'Desirable + essential' a lot.
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| From: Andy Harrington ([email protected]) on 14 May 2004 |
| An excellent intiative, well worth supporting. I would definitely use it for travelling to new areas |
| From: John slowcoach Turvey (...) on 14 May 2004 |
| 23 minutes - I will have to try to get a titanium keyboard so I can go faster on my computer. |
| From: Arch (still@[email protected]) on 14 May 2004 |
| God knows what my time was, I took a long time to read the questions, gave it all my consideration and then it couldn't record my first try, and I had to do it again. Great idea though, I would use it if I was planning a day out, or a long trip. I already use the AA equivalent for our work journeys. We just have to add 50% to the times to account for the age of our vehicles... |
| From: Pedaldog ([email protected]) on 14 May 2004 |
| Did it but would like ot know how it will be used. |
| From: Mark H - Speedy611 ([email protected]) on 17 May 2004 |
| Seems like a reasonable idea in principle, however, the danger might be that it gets used to shunt cyclists onto roads only with cycle lanes, hence increasing the rest of the public's perception that bikes are not part of normal road traffic. |
| From: Antony (at pedalcars dot info) on 18 May 2004 |
I don't see how it could be "used to shunt cyclists onto roads only with cycle lanes". Using it would be entirely voluntary; if you wanted to get from A to B and discovered that there's a cycle track that does the job instead of the dual carriageway, wouldn't you use it?
I certainly would.
If you want to use main roads instead, by all means do - and there's a number of existing route planners that will pick main roads for you to travel on. |
| From: Arch ([email protected]) on 18 May 2004 |
| I think one of the options they suggested was that you could ask for quiet or traffic free routes - if you were not bothered, you'd just opt for most direct. Certainly in a strange town, it's nice to have prior knowledge about the nicest way in. Something that I don't think was mentioned, and maybe I should have added it in my comments (but have only just thought of it) was finding routes around hills, rather than over them - I may be a wimp, but it would be nice to have a choice of whether to go up and over something steep, or around it. |
| From: Seamus (etc) on 18 May 2004 |
Unimpressed with the whole notion of journey planner but nonetheless nosey, I clicked on the link above and now I'm really interested.
What on earth could my employers ISP possibly have against the site to cause them to filter it? |
| From: andy scaife ([email protected]) on 20 May 2004 |
Honestly! what a waste of time. It doesn't tell you which way is nicest, where the evil white vans park on the bike lane, or where the bakeries are!
Seriously, I don't know whose resources are being used here, but surely they could be beter spent on REAL improvements for cyclists, or on driver (and lad-on-a-bike) education. |
| From: Arch (@herdesk) on 20 May 2004 |
| Don't knock it too much. Talking to people when out on roadshows, help with choosing and planning routes that avoid traffic or certain junctions etc is something that lots of people might find encouraging. We are always asked if there are local cycle route planning maps. Yes, once you are a confident cyclist, you can choose to go your own way, but then if you are going to a new place, you might need some advice. And maybe they could include options like 'picturesque' or 'pass local shops'. |
| From: andy scaife ([email protected]) on 21 May 2004 |
| but how do you define picturesque? they might be into taking Don McCullin-type monochrome photos of old slum clearances and mangy dogs. You could always sell (vetted) advertising like the GreenMap people do. "Gis a grand and you can be on the map. Gis 5 and we'll send everyone past your shop". (Don't tell Jim or there will be one in York by teatime!). |
| From: Tim Kirk ([email protected]) on 07 June 2004 |
| I did suggest they list pubs & cafes as well as bike shops on the route... I think it might make it easier to convince some people that you can ride from A-B without much hassle or traffic (and would have some uses on the occasional long ride into the unknown. Be even better if it can link into the Highways Agency database of major road works! (I've twice on cross coutry rides has to double back when a cross-motorway bridge was out of action due to work on the motorway below...) |
| From: James Murphy ([email protected]) on 09 June 2004 |
The one thing it has to do is allow you to plan a sensible route from A to B, preferably with the option of being free from obstruction (no gates, stiles or other stuff to prevent access by trike, trailer or loaded tandem).
When it does that, then it can do all the other nice things like show shops and refreshment facilities but those are all irrelevant if it doesn't offer useable routes. |
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