Route Planner

To get started with the route planner feature, click Route Planner at the top menu bar of the website.

Jump to a Location Click anywhere to place a start point. Enter an address to jump there, add a marker on the map, and have the system automatically generate a start point to that address.

• Jump to Home If you’ve set your home location in your profile preferences, you can click HOME in the blank Enter Location bar.
• Remove Marker If you used the Jump to Home or Jump to Location and want to remove the tear drop it has placed on the map, click REMOVE MARKER.

Move the start: You can move the start of a route by clicking and dragging the start point. We recommend using the Add/Remove Control Point tool to place a control point just after the start before dragging the start icon. This will lock the rest of your route in place while moving the start.

Add to Route
To plot your route using underlying map routing data, select the Add to Route tool and a routing optimization to snap your route to roads, paths, or trails. The Add to Route tool will automatically create a cuesheet as you click along the route which you will see appearing on the left side of the Route Planner. The Add to Route with the chosen routing optimization will go along any path you take that has routable data and will not stay to just paved roads.

The white dots that appear are Control Points and are what is used to constrain your route between each set of clicks. The more control points you have the more your route will stay in one place when editing or dragging your route elsewhere.

Avoiding Control Point Issues: While planning a route, a common issue that may pop-up is a missing or incorrect cue. This is caused by clicking an intersection. This pop-up will give you the alert and oppurtunity to undo your last click on the map.

Learn how to fix Incorrect Cue Sheet Entries

Cue Sheet Update When you make changes on the route, the cues in the left side panel are updated automatically. See Working with Cues for more detailed information.

Draw Lines To activate Draw Lines, click Add to Route and then Select Draw Lines. Using this tool does not create cues, nor snap to the roads.

We recommend using this sparingly.

Use Draw Lines to get your route line to go through a short area that doesn’t seem to want to work with the routing engine. This could be a parking lot, unmarked street, unmarked pedestrian cut-throughs, or countless other reasons that the routing information might not be available.

Drop POI Points of Interest can be added to your route to include more information about the scenery or event. Dropping POI is a Premium feature. See Adding POIs for more information.

Custom Cue Custom cues can be added to your route to include more information about a particular cue or give specific details about an area. Custom cues will be read aloud on the Ride with GPS app and will display as text on Garmin devices. Adding Custom Cues is a Premium feature. See Add to Cuesheet for more information.

Add/Remove Control Points Control points can act as a way to constrain the route to the road so that when you drag the route, the rest of the route on the other side of the control point remains the same. To move a control point, click and drag. To add a control point, click on the route. To remove a control point, click on the control point.

Routing Style:

When you have Add to Route selected, you can choose your routing style to best suit your activity.

• Walking – prioritize based on safety for walking. This routing will not be based on traffic laws such as one-way streets, but will use multi-use paths.
• Cycling – prioritize based on safety for cycling. Routes will use multi-use and bike paths, but may not be available in all areas.
• Driving – prioritize based on shortest distance.

When in cycling mode, you may get unpredictable results in some areas. This is because the routing system will not let you route along a certain stretch of the road, instead diverting you to a sidestreet. In some cases, this can cause funny loops and uturns. If you notice this, we recommend switching to Driving mode.

See Routing Style in action.

Change Map Style By clicking the map drop-down in the corner, you can change the map styles or while in MAP you can also click Bike Paths to see cycling-friendly routing info.

See Switching Map Styles for more details.

Click and Drag You can click and drag any part of a route to move it to a different road. This includes moving control points, as well as the start/finish points of a route.

Undo and Redo These buttons allow you to undo a your last function all the way back to when you first created this route. Redo to repeat the action if you hit undo too many times.

For a quick shortcut, type the letters “U” or “R” on your keyboard to perform these actions.

Route Planner Settings On the map you will see Settings, within this menu you can:

• Units Switch between Imperial ft/mi or Metric m/km.
• Show Cue Icons These are helpful for reviewing the route and indicating location of a cue.
• Auto Center The map will center on every click.
• Enable Scrollwheel Zoom Use the scroll wheel on your mouse or zoom gesture on your trackpad to zoom in/out on the map.
• Enable Selection Zoom Select portions of the elevation profile to zoom into a specific area.
• Enable Distance Markers Distance indicators that are automatically placed a calculated distance depending on the route.
• Show POIs Show or hide all the Points of Interest icons if your route contains them.
• Generate Cue Sheet While Planning Best to leave this option enabled so that the cue sheet is automatically generated for use on a printed cue sheet and mobile app.
• Keyboard Shortcuts Pops up a quick reference to the Planner’s keyboard shortcuts.

• Out and Back When planning a route where you want to use the same route when returning, plan the first half of the route then click OUT AND BACK to have the system automatically generate the return cues.
• Reverse Route When planning a route such as a two-day ride where you want to switch the start and end points, Click REVERSE ROUTE. The system will switch the start and end points then update the cue sheet accordingly.

Streetview

Drag the little yellow person icon onto a street for Streetview or to one of the blue dots on the map to view a Photosphere. These are 360-degree shots that allow you to see in places that roads may not normally go.

See Switching Map Styles for more details.

To exit Street View or Photosphere: Click the left arrow in the box just above the elevation profile.

Change Color You can change the color of the route as you are planning. This is great for indicating differences in the road or legs of a route.

Save When you are done planning your route, click SAVE in the left side panel. You can come back and edit this route at any time.

Save Options After clicking the SAVE button, you’ll be prompted to give the route a title, a description, set the privacy or add it to an event. Route managers can also save the route to their clubs.

Select Show More options to add images, specify activity type or to save a manually logged ride.

View Route After the route is done saving, a window will popup alerting you to its completion. Click VIEW ROUTE to see your completed work, or click CLOSE to stay in the route planner.