livedarklions

Is it better than Google Maps at indicating whether it's making you a shooting target? See my post #16.

prj71

It's unreasonable to expect the developers to keep up with timely changes on road conditions in every community around the U.S. It's just not going to happen.

And wouldn't unpaved mean a gravel road or dirt two track?

WhyFi

RwGPS and Strava both route using popularity, based upon cyclist ride data; unless you've got a bunch of thrill-seeking cyclists regularly riding through the range, neither would route you through it.

edit: for those that haven't used one of the above services, this may give you a better idea of what we mean. The darker the lines, the more cyclists there are riding on a given segment. RwGPS and Strava will both weigh this data in connecting the dots between desired stops/waypoints -

livedarklions

Good point. I've never really used either of those for routing, I might have to start because I'm getting a bit tired of the same old same old. I've tried using Komoot for it, but it's not good at distinguishing good running routes from cycling routes.

Might be fun to trade bad routing suggestion anecdotes. My second worst one from GM was when it tried to put me on a path that is a rapidly flowing creek without rideable banks for a good part of the year. Guess which part of the year it was.

OldRailfan

I use Google Map Pedometer https://www.mappedometer.com/
It does precisely what I want., nothing else required.
As far as results go Garmin Connect works for me.

WhyFi

FYI, you can create routes with a free account on RwGPS. Strava's routing tools are subscriber only, though you can look at their heatmap (you can't zoom in too far and no road names, but you could piece it together), which may be enough for some folks - https://www.strava.com/heatmap#7.00/....22856/hot/all

livedarklions

I didn't scroll down to see the map. That's the route I used to ride in the 1970s! I didn't go around Nokomis much, but I did the east side of the 3 lakes starting with Isles down to Minnehaha, then around at the river and back to Kenwood.

mstateglfr 

I agree, that is unreasonable.

- the issue I mention is that gravel roads, which have been gravel roads since well before GPS was a thing, are listed as paved. This then does not apply to your comment since there is no change.
- if they cant keep up with changes, then they shouldnt offer the option. If this were a mile here and a mile there that is incorrect, it would be easy to chalk that up to changing road conditions that havent been changed in the system. This is especially true if they show gravel and the road sections are now paved since that is the most common road condition change. Having 80% of the gravel roads show as paved is a very different situation- being that incorrect makes the feature pretty useless.

njkayaker

RWGPS isn't a mapping company. It appears they are getting the road surface data from Openstreetmap.

njkayaker

Not offering the option means assuming all roads are paved. That doesn't seem better at all.

If you don't like the option, turn it off.

RWGPS isn't a mapping company. It's a "use map data" company.

The road surface option might encourage people to update the map data (RWGPS appears to use Openstreetmap data for the road surfaces).

ClydeClydeson

For off road riding, Google maps can be useful because you can see where what they call a 'road' ends, but there is often some sort of cut in the trees beyond that might be passable. One of my favourite mixed terrain loops isn't a loop on Google Maps, but you can clearly see a road coming from the North and a road coming from the south with a gap of a few hundred meters of some type of cut in the trees.

I don't carry any type of odometer or distance measuring tool when I ride, so I often use Google maps to estimate my ride distance after I get home, if I can remember which way I went.

Troul 

If a driveway was properly identified as such or a private drive was labeled right, it'd likely save someone's life.

freetors

I will generally use RWGPS but will also consult the google when necessary. In the ~100 mile radius around where I live there is a lot of really bad map data; often times with roads being a hundred feet from where they actually are, intersections in the wrong place, or most frustrating miles of spiderwebbing farm tracks and driveways (which are usually gated and locked anyway) all over the place that software thinks are navigable roads. Therefore, I've started heavily editing roads in open street map to reflect reality and I would urge everyone else to do the same. It helps everyone else out too when that map data trickles down into all the other mapping softwares that use OSM.

billridesbikes

+1 OpenStreetMap.org is crowdsourced map data for the world. Anyone can create an OSM account and edit the surface or other information like you’re doing and at some point we’ll all benefit! I think just about all non-Google apps use OSM, RWGPS says it can take up to 3 months for changes to OSM to show up. Here is a link on how to start: https://ridewithgps.com/help/edit-routing-data

Steve B.

The subject of gravel vs. dirt, when do they change, was the subject a month or so ago. It's completely unreasonable to think that any online map database is going to have an accurate database of what's gravel and what's paved. RWGPS just instituted a change that everybody seemed to agree was completely inaccurate as to where the gravel was and was an essentially useless effort.. The OSM maps just don't get updated quick enough to track changes. In the upstate area of NY where I do a lot of off pavement riding, it's the counties usually that decide to extend the asphalt out another few miles and it's not like they then go and inform the assorted mapping companies. Neither Google nor OSM has people in the field checking and the only online database I've seen that is even close is GravelMaps, which relies on users to upload rides and or create routes online that are gravel. As the Op was asking about Google, I don't think Google shows when roads are not paved. Hell, they show roads that are under 12ft of snow half the year, forget gravel.

prj71

As I mentioned earlier Google Maps is layer available withing RWGPS. You never need to leave the Ride with GPS website to consult google maps.