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Best London Cycle Routes

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RambleJoy

Best London Cycle Routes

Post by RambleJoy »

It was a fantastic innovation to include BRouter compatibility in the latest version of AlpineQuest, but finding the most pleasant and safest ways to get across London by staying away from motor traffic can be tricky, despite the fact that it is now a remarkably good city to cycle in. It's generally necessary to compare multiple routing sources and maps and combine them with your own local knowledge and preferences.

Jon Stone has, however, created a brilliant YouTube channel, called London Cycle Routes, to share good ways to travel between different areas using protected cycle lanes and quiet streets. It's well worth subscribing to. The emerging picture of the otherwise less qualitatively mapped network is very helpful as a basis for other journeys with which it may intersect.

Still, this is a world filled full of horrors as well as goodness!!! :mrgreen: One of them is that, although he thoughtfully makes GPX files available, Jon does not yet appear to be an AQ convert and so you have to sign up for a(n albeit free) :shock: Komoot :shock: account to download them!... YouTube, of course, doesn't provide file download facilities, so it possibly is the easiest way for him, given the time and trouble already involved in planning and filming the routes.

Since I've already collected them, however, anyone interested may like to have the attached .ldk file for AlpineQuest, which contains all 70 routes recorded up to date. Yay! 8-)


Perhaps I could tag on a quick related question for François too... I may have missed something, but it isn't currently possible to import multiple GPX files directly into a specific pre-created .ldk file is it? You have to import each GPX as its own .gpx.ldk then cut and paste the track into the aggregate file and delete the now empty automatically created ones? If that's correct, could it be a feature request?
Attachments
London Quiet Cycle Routes by Jon Stone.ldk
Simply collected together up to this date from postings to the London Cycle Routes YouTube channel - not an official release or anything.
(823.12 KiB) Downloaded 221 times
suntalla

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by suntalla »

Hi RambleJoy,
Thanks for this one and all the others. Next year, corona volente, I will visit England. I will then certainly plan a bicycleday in London.
Perhaps usefull if you keep on posting England, Scotland files, to put them all in one post? Whenever there is a new one: add it stating new. All with a short discription. If you would do that starting now it allready is a verry nice collection. With O.S.U.K. taking such a silly position
(no tiles) this would be a nice come back for England on A.Q.
Thanks and
Friendly greetings
Jos
RambleJoy

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by RambleJoy »

Hi Jos,
I did think of adding this one to the previous post, since it meshes nicely with the TFL Cycle Ways, but just thought it might be more searchable with a more specific title...

Not sure I'll have much to add until Ramblers Scotland make their Scottish Paths Map dataset downloadable: which they say they're still hoping to do by the end of the year.

I was hoping the Admiralty ENC API might be individually accessible; but it isn't useful, sadly.

Definitely happy to help make AQ as capable as possible for UK users/visitors, though!

(It is technically & commercially possible to offer paid OS Leisure maps through the application -- which otherwise remain out of reach of the average consumer user, -- but that would require a whole extra layer of complexity and development effort for the billing and licensing requirements to be accommodated, no doubt.)

In any case, I do hope you can make it over and put this fantastic app we have discovered to good use in a new place :)
geofactotem
Posts: 82
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2022 7:21 pm

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by geofactotem »

Hi

(It is technically & commercially possible to offer paid OS Leisure maps through the application -- which otherwise remain out of reach of the average consumer user, -- but that would require a whole extra layer of complexity and development effort for the billing and licensing requirements to be accommodated, no doubt.)

Just to let you know, Francois is aware and is considering it :D . In the meantime I make do with old qct files for checking OSM or load up Viewranger where I can still see my more current paid for OSGB tiles.

Perhaps a petition is required :lol: :lol: :lol:

Regards
David
RambleJoy

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by RambleJoy »

With a modicum of perseverance and a soupçon of Bing, David, you'll be able to put together a personal cache of the full-fat up-to-data OS maps now. It's just that a casual, general user won't be able to, and anybody posting xml assistance could be at risk of liquidation by Thames House operatives ;-) (Or, rather, just liable to give François a headache.)
Psyberia-Support
Site Admin
Posts: 6406
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:41 pm

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by Psyberia-Support »

Hi and sorry for the delay.
Once again thank you RambleJoy for sharing this data.

You're right, it's currently not possible to import multiple files into a single .ldk file. So it does require few extra step to manually merge the imported file. You can use the multi-selection to copy all the content of a file at once. However, I'll try to add a "Merge" file fonction, just like the existing "Group" standalone waypoints into a waypoints set (added in the wanted features list).

And yes, just as David said, I'm slowly making some technical changes to allow user access the premium OSGB data from the application without any setup.

François
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RambleJoy

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by RambleJoy »

All sounds good to me!
Thanks, François!

Would those changes facilitate access to the IGN maps in a similar way then?
Psyberia-Support
Site Admin
Posts: 6406
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 9:41 pm

Re: Best London Cycle Routes

Post by Psyberia-Support »

This is the plan yes!
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