How do I plan the cycle routes so that I avoid major roads?

Question

I'm going on a 1400 km cycle tour this summer and I'm wondering how to plan a cycle tour without taking major roads. When I enter the routes on Komoot, for example, I am guided along major roads (which is not so cool from experience)

i would prefer to take long-distance cycle paths or small country roads

Answer 1

https://brouter.de/brouter-web/ has several profiles which avoid major roads and also allows you to customize the profiles. There is also an Android version available which can act as a routing backend for OsmAnd.

For example in the “fastbike” profile I can just change switch or highway=primary highway=primary_link 1.2 from a cost of 1.2 to some higher value (e.g. 2) and it will avoid major roads much more seriously. The trekking profile uses a cost of 1 for cycleways, 1.1 for residential roads, 1.4 for tertiary roads, 1.6 for secondary roads, and 3 for primary roads.

In my experience, the values of the trekking profile can be a bit too extreme and can lead to silly routing where it makes you take a zig-zag route through residential side roads in a village instead of a 500m stretch of primary road.

I’ve been quite happy with the fastbike profile with these values (primary increased from 1.2 to 1.4, cycleway decreased from 1.3 to 1.0):

  switch or highway=motorway highway=motorway_link    switch allow_motorways 1.5 10000
  switch or highway=trunk highway=trunk_link          switch allow_motorways 1.5 10
  switch or highway=primary highway=primary_link      1.4
  switch or highway=secondary highway=secondary_link  1.1
  switch or highway=tertiary highway=tertiary_link    1.0
  switch    highway=unclassified                      switch isunpaved 10 1.1
  switch    highway=pedestrian                        10
  switch    highway=steps                             switch allow_steps 1000 10000
  switch    route=ferry                               switch allow_ferries 5.67 10000
  switch    highway=bridleway                         5
  switch    highway=cycleway                          1.0
  switch    isresidentialorliving                     switch isunpaved 10 1.2
  switch    highway=service                           switch isunpaved 10 1.2
  switch or highway=track or highway=road or highway=path highway=footway
   switch tracktype=grade1 switch isunpaved 3 1.2
   switch tracktype=grade2 switch isunpaved 10 3
   switch tracktype=grade3 10.0
   switch tracktype=grade4 20.0
   switch tracktype=grade5 30.0
   switch or bicycle=designated bicycle_road=yes 2.0
   switch ispaved 2.0 100.0
  10.0

Answer 2

Whatever tool you use, the most important is your brain.

I routinely plan rides of hundreds of km in unfamiliar areas using mainly Komoot. It's very reluctant to route along primary roads, quite reluctant to route along secondary roads. That's the UK terminology but also the classification used in OpenStreetMap, the data source for most route planners.

I use a lot of manual control points, dragging the route.

Touring mode can be interesting, but it sends you down unpaved stuff which can be really rough, without highlighting it. Road cycling mode warns you about unpaved stretches. Flicking between the two can be instructive.

Pressing M on your keyboard hides the route, and lets you see the underlying road colour code. White is used for the nost minor roads on the OpenCycleMap layer, which is much clearer than the default, especially if you're looking for (on-road) cycle routes.

Long straight roads and those passing urban areas are worth checking, perhaps even using Google Street View, but that can miss busy periods.

I tend to have Google maps and OpenStreetMap open at the same time as Komoot for planning major trips.

For a big tour I'd break it into logical sections of a couple of hundred km or less, so a section can be planned snd put to one side.

Answer 3

It may well depends on the country you want to travel and the planner you use.

I am not familiar with Komoot but in most planners, and I think Komoot is one of them, you can set a profile or a preferred kind of cycling. In this answer about cycling in the UK you will find a lot of information about planning but partly specified for my kind of cycle. But the person who posted the answer uses a bike, so his experience is much more use to you.

My preferred way is to start with long distance cycling routes and using waypoints in a planner to get the long distance planning, and day by day I will look at street level and adjust where the planner missed the right kind of road.

It is still useful to bring paper maps but for the distance you expect to travel you would need to many sheets if you bring detailed maps.

Answer 4

Please have a look at cycle.travel. It's been my go-to route planner for seveal years. It is free to use, and there are versions for Android & ioS as well as web browser.

Answer 5

Another option is mapy.cz.

It is manly czech but it has quite good translations to major languages too. Outisde Czech Republic it is quite handy and competent but in CZ it shows its full potential...

You can select planning and pick up cycling and option "mountain bike". Then you will be directed mainly on paths suitable for off-road bike.

It allows adding checkpoints quite easily so you can redirect your way appropriately.

There is on-line version and both iOS and Android app; if you share the link to the plan, you can use it in your app easily.

Another great feature is membership in map-sharing community and "tourist" version of the map is very reliable in terms of road quality (highway, motorway, major road, minor road, path and so on.) and elevation. In europe it feels like you have the old-style tourist map on your screen.

You can plan and adjust on the fly.

Answer 6

Might seem simplistic: use a small-scale paper map, or more than one considering the extent of your planned tour, and trace your own route without relying on softwares. It takes a bit of time and patience but it's guaranteed to work.