Sustrans Route Planning

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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Dave Barter
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Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Dave Barter »

I am riding route NCN 4 this weekend on my way to the Dunwich Dynamo.

Planning the route has been a bit of a nightmare. No shops locally stock the maps, so I looked online at the Sustrans website. I found the online map really hard to work from as it was slow to load, crashed and sometimes no tiles would display. I had a search but could not find any GPX files.

Am I alone in being frustrated with this? I had hoped it would be a breeze but it's been the opposite. I really like planning routes using digital maps as it keeps my paper ones nice and pristine, I only print the bits I need. Maybe there is some resource I'm missing?
Last edited by Dave Barter on 6 Jul 2012, 7:53pm, edited 1 time in total.
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meic
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by meic »

I would go onto

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php

then on the Google map there is a box with OSMcycle written in it, click on that.

Hopefully some nice person will have mapped the route for you to use and had it incorporated into these freeware maps. That is what I always do if I want to follow a Sustrans NCN.
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Dave Barter
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Dave Barter »

Thanks, looks dead useful but unless I am missing something it appears that you cannot download the NCN tracks?
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meic
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by meic »

No you cant, you can plot a track along them yourself and then download that as a .gpx file.
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Neil F
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Location: North Cornwall

Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Neil F »

Memory Map produced a disk with the NCN routes as overlays. They are a bit out of date. Which bits of NCN4 do you want ?
graymee
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by graymee »

Dave Barter wrote:Am I alone in being frustrated with this?


Most definitely not! The Sustrans mapping is appalling and their mobile phone app is as bad if not worse. I'm not a Sustrans hater, I'm one of their rangers but wish they'd get the mapping sorted. There are various threads on here suggesting the best mapping to use, do a quick search and you'll find various personal recommendations on which mapping is best.
I'm not old and cynical, I'm realistic!
Dave Barter
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Dave Barter »

graymee wrote:
Dave Barter wrote:Am I alone in being frustrated with this?


Most definitely not! The Sustrans mapping is appalling and their mobile phone app is as bad if not worse. I'm not a Sustrans hater, I'm one of their rangers but wish they'd get the mapping sorted. There are various threads on here suggesting the best mapping to use, do a quick search and you'll find various personal recommendations on which mapping is best.


Thank goodness for that I thought it was only me.

I'm torn, on one hand I can see how Sustrans need the money from paper maps to fund activity. On the other I want EVERYONE to have easy access to these routes online. I am tempted to spend time mapping it all by hand myself and publishing on a separate site.
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byegad
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by byegad »

Also you can follow a 'Route' for it to cross a boggy field complete with a foot or more of mud in the gateways. Then there's the stupid barriers designed to stop progress. Sustrans was a great idea ruined by patchy execution ranging from excellent to utter rubbish.
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Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Dave Barter wrote:I'm torn, on one hand I can see how Sustrans need the money from paper maps to fund activity. On the other I want EVERYONE to have easy access to these routes online. I am tempted to spend time mapping it all by hand myself and publishing on a separate site.

No need - it's all been done as part of OpenStreetMap. If you can see the route highlighted on OpenCycleMap then the data's in OSM.

Personally I use a custom (OSM-derived) map file on my Garmin which highlights the NCN. That means I can just glance down at my handlebars and follow the thick red line should I be unsure which way to go.

But I lose track of the different ways in which people use digital mapping. So... what would be most useful to you? GPX files, one per route? Or something else? Let me know and I can have a go at coming up with it.

Richard (OSM mapper and coder... and Sustrans ranger)
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
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Neil F
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Neil F »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:But I lose track of the different ways in which people use digital mapping. So... what would be most useful to you? GPX files, one per route? Or something else? Let me know and I can have a go at coming up with it.



GPX files of the routes would be great. I could load them into the memory map android app. :D
Dave Barter
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Dave Barter »

Personally I use a custom (OSM-derived) map file on my Garmin which highlights the NCN. That means I can just glance down at my handlebars and follow the thick red line should I be unsure which way to go.


Richard, could you post a link to this download please?
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mcallaghan
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by mcallaghan »

Is there anywhere to view the elevation profile of Sustrans routes, short of buying their maps? Trying to figure out if the proposed routes and mileage in Scotland portion of my LEJOG are feasible or need to be broken down.
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

Dave Barter wrote:Richard, could you post a link to this download please?

I'll rustle up a new version and post a link...
cycle.travel - maps, journey-planner, route guides and city guides
WaitForPete
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by WaitForPete »

The world has moved on, you can get the trails from www.Bikemap.net, though if you download the gpx file you may need software to stitch sections together.
khain
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Re: Sustrans Route Planning

Post by khain »

Experience has taught me to avoid Sustrans routes as much as possible. You'll need a Garmin or smartphone to follow them as the signs are awful. If you want to use paper maps use OS Landrangers rather than Sustrans own, though you might need to carry several. I ordered a map from Sustrans website and it was printed on cheap paper and fell to bits after a few days.

Routes will also take considerably longer than you might expect because of all the meandering, hill-climbing, gates, steps, muddy footpaths etc.
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