Sustrans website and cycle maps - is there a better alternative?

"Niall Wallace" wrote in message
news
"Peter Fox" wrote in
message ...

(though this may be sticking in mind having passed Scene of Crime officers
and the coroners (Jaguar Estate) car just north of balloch.)

Coronors should have been Fiscals. (No such thing as Coroner here)

Mentionedi n otdays P&J

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/dis...pNodeId=149221

On Apr 8, 5:07 pm, Patter wrote:
On 7 Apr 2007 15:43:58 -0700, digitaltoast wrote:

Have you tried the OS maps site?http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/getamap/

Couple of other people have suggested this - I don't see the cycles
routes on that site anywhere.
I don't see hi-res photography and easy scroll and pan that lets me
follow a route along so I can guage the quality of the path.
I don't see the "community layer" I was talking about. For example,
this took me less than a minute:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...1d85550c605ff5

Actually, I just found a very basic version of what I was talking
about:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=e...015,1.2854&t=k

That, combined with distances and waypoints, would be just what I was
looking for.

In fact, I was able to get a fairly good guide to the distance of the
ride I'd planned in about 2 minutes, just by typing towns along the
river into google:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...0.37815,1.2854

If Sustrans adopted the google maps option, not only would there be no
charges to sustrans, but anyone could follow it with any browser, and
turn on a "community layer" option.

That said, yes, the OS maps gives a little more detail, but I'd rather
have the actual info!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride in the end - the Pewsey end of the
canal path is a little rough, but the rest is excellent. Some pics
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/digita...istolCycleRide

On Apr 8, 10:49 am, Peter Fox
wrote:

IMHO The crunch is "is a sustrans route particularly better than
alternatives" I suspect the answer is "rarely". It might be different
or if lucky a well designed, well maintained, well signposted and really
useful cycle specific facility - but really it's just "we've picked some
roads going in a general direction".

Hmmm... what I don't see Sustrans as, yet, is what it was designed
for, ie: to be an alternative to road use.
(I almost don't appear to have mastered readable sentences yet - I
know what I mean!)
I use Sustrans just to plan an amiable day out. Unfortunately, as a
later poster points out, mindless dickheads seem to enjoy turning the
signs round to point the wrong way. I correct the ones I can, not
wanting anyone else to waste the same 2 miles I often do, but
sometimes it's clearly been a several-chav effort to lift a large post.

On Apr 8, 6:18 pm, "Pinky" wrote:
"digitaltoast" wrote in message

To be honest my comments do not just apply to Sustrans but to the general lack
of cleanliness of our countryside.-- and it is not just the beer can chucking
driver -- it is also the litter chucking pedestrian and cyclist as well.

Yeah - what the HELL is with drivers chucking cans at cyclists??
Several cycling friends have had the same.
Usually, the drink or chips or whatever miss, but one time it was
raining already and I was miles from home when I felt the pain and
"splosh" of a can of something, launched from a passing car, hitting
my back. I lost it, pedalled like hell and caught them in some
traffic, keys at the ready, BIG scratch down the side, smashed the
wing mirror on the way past. (Bruised my hand as well, the *******s!).
I didn't glance back, but the explosion of noise and cursing behind
suggested that I'd done a good job

I know a friend who carries a pocket of marbles for the cars that
never seem to see cyclists at a junction in Windsor.
Not entirely sure I'd risk doing that if there wasn't a good getaway
path!

Following on from digitaltoast's message. . .
I use Sustrans just to plan an amiable day out. Unfortunately, as a
later poster points out, mindless dickheads seem to enjoy turning the
signs round to point the wrong way. I correct the ones I can, not

Tip for ALL sign erectors. Put a self-tapper through the band and post.
Adds another level of difficulty.

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the submarine business went under

www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

Following on from Niall Wallace's message. . .

"Niall Wallace" wrote in message
news
"Peter Fox" wrote in
message ...
[NO I DIDNT - Your email mincer is telling lies]


(though this may be sticking in mind having passed Scene of Crime officers
and the coroners (Jaguar Estate) car just north of balloch.)

Coronors should have been Fiscals. (No such thing as Coroner here)

Mentionedi n otdays P&J

http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/dis...9664&command=d
isplayContent&sourceNode=149490&contentPK=1706501 0&folderPk=85696&p
NodeId=149221



--
PETER FOX Not the same since the deckchair business folded

www.eminent.demon.co.uk - Lots for cyclists

"digitaltoast" wrote:
I emailed them about 6 months ago to suggest using a googlemaps mashup
system, which would be totally free [...]

and would lock out lots of browsers who google just doesn't care about.
For example, tubejp.co.uk does nothing here.

The sustrans system is imperfect, but it's better than google. There's
a real gap for a killer web mapping system still, years after the likes
of streetmap.co.uk and multimap.com first appeared and started stagnating.

The problems with signs are probably partly due to tiny council cycle
route signing budgets (under 20kpa for cycle signs, barriers and bollards
in Norfolk - and guess which of those takes priority?) and the
second-class approach to cycling signs (for example, I've been told that
they should make cycle route sign lettering smaller to make cyclists slow
down at junctions). Cycle route signs should be funded properly and use
the same principles of making route-finding easy as main road signs - it
is stupid to build so many cycle tracks and bypasses and then sign them
so badly that they're annoying to use.
--
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Webmaster/web developer, statistician, sysadmin, online shop maker,
developer of koha, debian, gobo, gnustep, various mail and web s/w.
Workers co-op @ Weston-super-Mare, Somerset http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

On Apr 7, 11:43 pm, "digitaltoast" wrote:
I consider myself to be fairly technical, but I find the sustrains
site incredibly difficult to use! OK, I know they want you to buy the
"proper" maps, but why is there online mapping system so difficult to
use?

I emailed them about 6 months ago to suggest using a googlemaps mashup
system, which would be totally free, but they didn't reply - I guess
they must have paid a whole wad of cash for the rights to use those
'orrible static maps.

It seems that people have mashed up everything from starbucks
locations to The Underground (http://tubejp.co.uk/) and with the new
"anyone can use" mapmaker (http://maps.google.com/help/maps/userguide/
index.html) allowing easy adding of placemarks, lines, shapes, notes,
pictures etc, I was wondering if anyone had set about making something
more user friendly?

If not, I might even give it a go myself! But I feel sure that someone
MUST have made a decent version of the routes - I just can't find it

Have you tried the CTC's system at http://www.ctc-maps.org.uk/?

It uses a variety of mapping methods including the Google Maps
interface and text entry of route sheets. Lots of routes are building
up in there but I couldn't find anything directly relating to Sustrans
routes. I think you may need to be a CTC member to use it.

--
Dave...

digitaltoast wrote:

On Apr 8, 10:49 am, Peter Fox
wrote:

IMHO The crunch is "is a sustrans route particularly better than
alternatives" I suspect the answer is "rarely". It might be different
or if lucky a well designed, well maintained, well signposted and really
useful cycle specific facility - but really it's just "we've picked some
roads going in a general direction".

Hmmm... what I don't see Sustrans as, yet, is what it was designed
for, ie: to be an alternative to road use.
(I almost don't appear to have mastered readable sentences yet - I
know what I mean!)
I use Sustrans just to plan an amiable day out. Unfortunately, as a
later poster points out, mindless dickheads seem to enjoy turning the
signs round to point the wrong way. I correct the ones I can, not
wanting anyone else to waste the same 2 miles I often do, but
sometimes it's clearly been a several-chav effort to lift a large post.

i suppose if what its suposed to be alternative for ie lesure or
commuting.

the two do not nessarly meet. all the times i've met sustrans the
impression was not one of a well run orgnisation.

roger

"Peter Fox" wrote in
message ...
Following on from Niall Wallace's message. . .

"Niall Wallace" wrote in message
news
"Peter Fox" wrote in
message ...
[NO I DIDNT - Your email mincer is telling lies]


Correct, You didn't... I did though. Not sure if its OE or my crap editing
though

Niall