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(I'm the author of the 2014 article posted here - really pleasant surprise to see it surface on HN.) Fully agree with your comments. It's not just Google that

(I'm the author of the 2014 article posted here - really pleasant surprise to see it surface on HN.) Fully agree with your comments. It's not just Google that can tell you about busy roads, though - in some countries that's available as open data. I run https://cycle.travel/map https://cycle.travel/map , which uses open traffic data (in the US, UK and a couple of other places) to influence its OpenStreetMap-based bike routing. So, for example, in the Home Counties (broadly the London commuter belt) the A-class roads are generally busy and unrideable, whereas A-class roads in the Scottish Highlands are often (not always) beautifully quiet. cycle.travel will happily route along the latter but not the former. The Strava approach is interesting, but Strava users are biased towards athletic cyclists who generally have a higher tolerance for busy roads. For tourers and other leisure riders I'm less convinced that the presence of other cyclists is a good signifier of pleasant cycling. (In London, for example, Strava shows the Euston Road as a busy cycling thoroughfare, which I'd never dream of riding.)

twic 8y ago
I cycle along the Euston Road fairly often - it has bus lanes, which to me makes it pretty much fine. I wonder if that's another dimension of variation which should be considered. I do avoid the underpass, though, that's terrifying!
aligibbs 8y ago
Just wanted to say thank you- I recently found this site and find it really useful to plan cycle routes etc.
adimitrov 8y ago
Thanks for chiming in! cycle.travel/map is really good! I like how responsive the interface is, and its routing algorithm seems on par with other ones I've tried. Do you take into account traffic info for Germany? I couldn't find good open sources for that. Yeah, Strava tends to overestimate the rideability of bigger roads. Keep in mind that a lot of groups use Strava, and it's easier to ride a busy road when you're in a group. In Germany, for example, you even have a different legal status on the road. I would love it if I could somehow filter the global Strava data, but they don't make their data available; not that I would expect them to.
- Doctor_Fegg 8y ago
  No, I've not found national traffic data for Germany, unfortunately. I think it exists for one or two areas (NRW maybe?) but certainly not nationally, and the proprietary sources tend to be prohibitively expensive. I'm intrigued as to whether it might be possible to count cars in imagery as a possible alternative...

twic 8y ago

I cycle along the Euston Road fairly often - it has bus lanes, which to me makes it pretty much fine. I wonder if that's another dimension of variation which should be considered. I do avoid the underpass, though, that's terrifying!

aligibbs 8y ago

Just wanted to say thank you- I recently found this site and find it really useful to plan cycle routes etc.

adimitrov 8y ago

Thanks for chiming in! cycle.travel/map is really good! I like how responsive the interface is, and its routing algorithm seems on par with other ones I've tried. Do you take into account traffic info for Germany? I couldn't find good open sources for that. Yeah, Strava tends to overestimate the rideability of bigger roads. Keep in mind that a lot of groups use Strava, and it's easier to ride a busy road when you're in a group. In Germany, for example, you even have a different legal status on the road. I would love it if I could somehow filter the global Strava data, but they don't make their data available; not that I would expect them to.

Doctor_Fegg 8y ago
No, I've not found national traffic data for Germany, unfortunately. I think it exists for one or two areas (NRW maybe?) but certainly not nationally, and the proprietary sources tend to be prohibitively expensive. I'm intrigued as to whether it might be possible to count cars in imagery as a possible alternative...