Urban cycle routes can often be very circuitous because they have to work around one-way systems, tunnel under major roads, use paths across parks and short links connecting residential areas. For many years now, CycleStreets has included the cost of making each turn in the overall process of choosing a practical cycle route. The model […]
Cycle routes very often use un-named paths. These create a headache for anyone who tries to give directions to a cyclist: “take the cycleway alonsidge this road, at a junction with two other paths turn right under the bridge, then go down a snicket on the left …” It’s a key issue for us trying […]
The graphic shows work in progress to improve the quality of CycleStreets routes by taking into account the cost of making a turn. This is part of routing enhancement work being undertaken by Codex Cambridge with us as part of the Technology Strategy Board Innovation Vouchers scheme. The upper frame shows three routes for a […]
This is a tech post, so if you’re not a techy person, feel free to stop reading now! We’ve been reorganising the CycleStreets codebase to get ready for open-sourcing the remainder of our software. This has been a challenging task involving learning how to write scripts that automate the installation of the CycleStreets website. The […]
CycleStreets has been using elevation data for several years to help avoid un-necessary hills in planned routes. The elevations we use are interpolated from open data surveys that provide an estimate of the height of the ground above sea level. The results of the processing can be seen in the elevation profile of every route planned […]
We’re pleased to announce a series of upgrades to the routing that have been rolled out in the last few months. We’ve extended the range of OpenStreetMap tags that the CycleStreets routing engine uses to find cycle routes. This has helped us improve the quality of the suggested bike routes in two main ways: by […]
We’ve recently completed a switch over of the whole CycleStreets system to upgraded hosting. Our previous primary server has been extremely reliable and, having just checked, I find it has been up for 795 days, and has only been rebooted once in the last two-and-a-half years. The new primary server is needed to support expansion […]
The main reason I got into cycling was that it was simply the best way for me to get to school. As I grew up I discovered that it was also the best way of getting around Hinckley, Central London, the villages of southern Cheshire, Milton Keynes, Georgetown (Guyana), and of course, Cambridge (England). I […]
Here's a view of the latest work in progress to improve the quality of the routes offered. It shows the routemaster's view of the cycling network of South London. The screenshot is from one of a range of back-end tools which help us work on the complex task of debugging the routing engine. The yellow […]
We're riding again, with the leaders of the pack, in TalkTalk's annual "Digital Heroes" awards. This is a competitive award scheme, which if we win would bring a much needed investment of £5,000 to the project. Every penny would be used to improve the website to make it easier to use and produce better quality […]