Option to Auto Plot on Private Paths, Bridleways and Tracks

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• Julian Beach   Saturday 02 Nov 2019 15:06:03

  I changed the tags on the local routes on Bridleways that I know allow bikes to bicycles=yes, so these should allow routing when plotaroute next update. I cannot tell how often the maps are updated - I can see changes on the maps that I made last year, but I can't see a way of finding out when the last update was. I guess I will have to wait and see when my latest changes appear! I've made a change to a local building, so I will be able to see when that change appears on plotaroute.

  I've got the premium version, but as you say, the detail of the OSM maps is much better, so I want to get the routing issues sorted out. An optional switch is one solution, but perhaps users should also be encouraged to update the OSM maps if they have specific local knowledge. OSM depends on the local knowledge of contributors to ensure that it is as accurate as possible.

• plotaroute admin   Wednesday 06 Nov 2019 08:36:54

  Sorry for the delay in replying to this. The change we referred to below was to overcome an anomaly with our routing service, where bridleways are considered not suitable for pedestrians unless they are explicitly tagged as such on OSM.  This doesn't affecting routing By Bike though. Updating the OSM maps to add the cycling access tags should fix any paths that won't auto-plot By Bike, but you could also change the Auto-Plot switch to On Foot if the auto-plot By Bike won't follow a particular path. 

  Regarding updates, our maps are updated continuously on a drip-feed, so changes made on OSM will appear on plotaroute as soon as any map tiles cached by your browser expire - this should be within 3-4 days. The routing updates are more complicated, as updating the routing graphs is a very lengthy process, so this is currently only done once a month.  We can look into the possibility of making these updates more frequent, but there will always be a lag between map updates and routing updates I'm afraid.

  John

• Julian Beach   Wednesday 06 Nov 2019 10:42:20

  Thanks for the response. I can see the changes that I made on Saturday on the map now. A monthly update of routing seems fine to me - routes are not going to change that often, so a more frequent update cycle would be a waste of resources. I will do a bit more work on the local bridleways where I know that cycling is permitted, which should sort out the local routing problems. There is probably a way of doing more systematic changes to bikes and bridleways in the UK on OSM - I know one of the active UK OSM contributors, so I will have a word with him about it.

  If you are keen on maps and mapping, you might be interested in the Missing Maps project, which links OSM map development to humanitarian aid efforts - https://www.missingmaps.org/