Dutch Wiki route planner

Sounds kinda familiar


***************************
Dutch cyclists sat-map the way
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,19774712^15397^^nbv^,00.html
Lucas van Grinsven in Amsterdam. JULY 13, 2006

Dutch cyclists union ENFB has launched the first door-to-door route finder for bicycles, a result of a large volunteer project inspired by Wikipedia.

One in every three trips in the Netherlands is done on a bicycle and the country has thousands of bicycle lanes that are not accessible to cars. None of these bicycle lanes were known to navigation software or route finding devices.

"This is really a Dutch problem. Other countries have very few dedicated bike lanes and in those countries car route finders can be used by cyclists, too. But here in Holland, car route finders are unaware of the best cycle lanes," said Kees Bakker, project leader for the Dutch cycle route planner.

In recent months, dozens of volunteers have mapped all roads and cycle lanes in the central province of Utrecht, which has 1.17 million citizens.

The volunteers needed to be much more precise than commercial digital map makers for car navigation, jotting down details such as road surface, scenery and if a road was well lit.

"Detail is what cyclists need and what makes this so valuable. You need to be able to choose a safe route at night, and a racing cyclist wants a hard bike lane and no dirt roads," said Erik Jonkman, one of 70 volunteers.

Over a period of one month he spent 80 hours cycling the roads around his home and putting the data in the computer.

"We looked at projects like Wikipedia and figured a collaborative approach would also work well in this case. Cyclists love to share their favourite routes, and are often discussing them," Mr Bakker said:

Mr Jonkman said the collaborative approach offers unexpected benefits, such as the possibility to quickly correct errors.

The planner is already used by around 1000 visitors a day who can also download the routes onto Garmin GPS units.

The cyclists union is in talks with other provinces to get access to maps. The goal is to cover the entire country.

Related links
http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner

 

Well, good ideas are good ideas I guess. The number of people I've had
email me saying "I was going to do exactly this!" ;-)

Was wondering why we hadn't gotten any Dutch routes!

Jules



cfsmtb wrote:
> Sounds kinda familiar
>
>
> ***************************
> Dutch cyclists sat-map the way
> http://tinyurl.com/kweup
> Lucas van Grinsven in Amsterdam. JULY 13, 2006
>
> Dutch cyclists union ENFB has launched the first door-to-door route
> finder for bicycles, a result of a large volunteer project inspired by
> Wikipedia.
>
> One in every three trips in the Netherlands is done on a bicycle and
> the country has thousands of bicycle lanes that are not accessible to
> cars. None of these bicycle lanes were known to navigation software or
> route finding devices.
>
> "This is really a Dutch problem. Other countries have very few
> dedicated bike lanes and in those countries car route finders can be
> used by cyclists, too. But here in Holland, car route finders are
> unaware of the best cycle lanes," said Kees Bakker, project leader for
> the Dutch cycle route planner.
>
> In recent months, dozens of volunteers have mapped all roads and cycle
> lanes in the central province of Utrecht, which has 1.17 million
> citizens.
>
> The volunteers needed to be much more precise than commercial digital
> map makers for car navigation, jotting down details such as road
> surface, scenery and if a road was well lit.
>
> "Detail is what cyclists need and what makes this so valuable. You need
> to be able to choose a safe route at night, and a racing cyclist wants a
> hard bike lane and no dirt roads," said Erik Jonkman, one of 70
> volunteers.
>
> Over a period of one month he spent 80 hours cycling the roads around
> his home and putting the data in the computer.
>
> "We looked at projects like Wikipedia and figured a collaborative
> approach would also work well in this case. Cyclists love to share
> their favourite routes, and are often discussing them," Mr Bakker
> said:
>
> Mr Jonkman said the collaborative approach offers unexpected benefits,
> such as the possibility to quickly correct errors.
>
> The planner is already used by around 1000 visitors a day who can also
> download the routes onto Garmin GPS units.
>
> The cyclists union is in talks with other provinces to get access to
> maps. The goal is to cover the entire country.
>
> Related links
> http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner
>
>

 

UBD has shown some interest in showing bike paths on their directories ,
some are shown already, (but often with mistakes) and if you send them
details they say they will try to incorporate new ones or correct mistakes
etc in next edition. They sent me a free directory for my troubles a few
years ago. It is harder to get onroad bike routes shown, but maybe the
so-called bicycle arterials (like the RTA Principal Bike Routes) could be
shown. While Bikely etc are good I still prefer a good street directory for
navigating around by bike. One of those mini directories is easy to carry.

As an aside, on comment by Erik Jonkman in cfsmtb's post, just where do
Dutch racing cyclists train - not on bike paths I bet.

fb


"cfsmtb" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]
>
> Sounds kinda familiar
>
>
> ***************************
> Dutch cyclists sat-map the way
> http://tinyurl.com/kweup
> Lucas van Grinsven in Amsterdam. JULY 13, 2006
>
> Dutch cyclists union ENFB has launched the first door-to-door route
> finder for bicycles, a result of a large volunteer project inspired by
> Wikipedia.
>
> One in every three trips in the Netherlands is done on a bicycle and
> the country has thousands of bicycle lanes that are not accessible to
> cars. None of these bicycle lanes were known to navigation software or
> route finding devices.
>
> "This is really a Dutch problem. Other countries have very few
> dedicated bike lanes and in those countries car route finders can be
> used by cyclists, too. But here in Holland, car route finders are
> unaware of the best cycle lanes," said Kees Bakker, project leader for
> the Dutch cycle route planner.
>
> In recent months, dozens of volunteers have mapped all roads and cycle
> lanes in the central province of Utrecht, which has 1.17 million
> citizens.
>
> The volunteers needed to be much more precise than commercial digital
> map makers for car navigation, jotting down details such as road
> surface, scenery and if a road was well lit.
>
> "Detail is what cyclists need and what makes this so valuable. You need
> to be able to choose a safe route at night, and a racing cyclist wants a
> hard bike lane and no dirt roads," said Erik Jonkman, one of 70
> volunteers.
>
> Over a period of one month he spent 80 hours cycling the roads around
> his home and putting the data in the computer.
>
> "We looked at projects like Wikipedia and figured a collaborative
> approach would also work well in this case. Cyclists love to share
> their favourite routes, and are often discussing them," Mr Bakker
> said:
>
> Mr Jonkman said the collaborative approach offers unexpected benefits,
> such as the possibility to quickly correct errors.
>
> The planner is already used by around 1000 visitors a day who can also
> download the routes onto Garmin GPS units.
>
> The cyclists union is in talks with other provinces to get access to
> maps. The goal is to cover the entire country.
>
> Related links
> http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner
>
>
> --
> cfsmtb
>

 

Fractal wrote:
> UBD has shown some interest in showing bike paths on their directories ,
> some are shown already, (but often with mistakes)

Mistakes are often deliberate to catch "reprinters". I was told up to 10
per map.