Two new route mapping systems

Two years ago I wrote about two different cycle route mapping systems which were available then, Toporoute and Sanoodi. Both are still available. Neither has changed very much, so my comments of two years ago still apply. Recently I've evaluated two new systems. Both are much better, but they have different merits.

Note that all these systems use GoogleMaps as a back end.

MapMyRide

The first is MapMyRide.com. The site is rather heavy with advertising, which is distracting (but does at least mean they have income to keep it running). MapMyRide shares Toporoute's 'route along roads' feature, and does it at least as well. It offers a good range of symbols you can use to annotate your route; and, if you pay a subscription, it offers impressive and useful route printing facilities. In theory paying a subscription is also supposed to get rid of the intrusive advertising, but in practice it doesn't. However, most of the adverts do clear themselves off the screen after a few seconds. MapMyRide organises your routes with a good 'my account' feature and allows you to select whether they're public or private.

One feature I particularly like, which none of the other systems I've tried has, is that MapMyRoute automatically puts 'distance travelled' markers along the route, as white numbers in grey circles.

MapMyRide is a part of a family of websites, 'MapMyFitness.com', which also includes subsites targetted at runners (MapMyRun.com). There is related software which runs on an iPhone, and the system accepts upload of KML, GPX and TCX data, as well as data directly from Garmin devices.

Despite the advertisements, when you're actually working the map area of the screen is quite large – much larger than Sanoodi, not quite as large as Toporoute. On the whole I like this system very well, and have taken out a subscription – it's a service worth paying for. However, it's not quite my favourite...

My Tracks

Enter Android's My Tracks. My Tracks isn't a web site. Instead, it's a program by Google for Google's mobile phone operating system, Android. Being Google's program, obviously it integrates with Google Maps directly. So what's so great about My Tracks? Well, when you go out for a bike ride, you slip your phone in your pocket. Of course you do – everyone does. But, before you slip your phone in your pocket, you start My Tracks, and select the 'record' widget. That's all. The phone then just sits in your pocket, recording your route (and if you care to look, displaying it on a Google Map either in map view or in satellite view, in real time). When you've finished your ride, you select the 'stop recording' widget. You then get the opportunity to add a few notes about your route, and an option that says 'upload to Google'. Select that option, and, hey presto, your route is up on Google Maps for anyone to see – it's as simple as that.

My Tracks will also export your track as a KML or GPX file, either storing it in the phone's memory or emailing it to any address you choose. As well as mapping your route, it records your elevation, so you can see an elevation profile at any time.

So – what's not to like about this? Why am I still paying a subscription to MapMyRide? Well, MapMyRide makes it reasonably easy to add symbols and annotations to a ride. My Tracks is supposed to do this, but I haven't made it work. And MapMyRide's route printing feature is substantially better than the raw GoogleMaps output.

Fortunately, the two work together well. If you plug your Android phone into your PC, and select 'Mount' from the 'USB connected' widget, you can upload a KML or GPX track directly from the phone's memory.