Bike Route Option Added!

If you've been enjoying our Open Directions Service so far, you'll be delighted to know that we've also added bike routes as an option!

Just change to routeType=bicycle and you're done.

Doing so will apply certain rules such as those shown below:

* Avoids roads where bicycle access in OpenStreetMap is set to false
* Avoids all limited access highways
* Favors bike specific paths (road segments that have bicycle access only – no auto or pedestrian)
* Favors walkways with no auto access
* Applies various weights to roads based on the maxspeed tag (ex. favors routes where maxspeed <= 30 mph)

Read more about bike routes on the MapQuest Developer Blog. If you have any questions, just ask here and I'll be glad to help!

That's so cool I immediately went and wrote my first ever map application with the MapQuest API and OpenLayers. It's a good way to test for the accuracy and presence of bike facility data, I've learned!

Thanks for making that API available.

I just noticed this:




In several western states in the US, limited access highways are sometimes the only legal way to get from point A to B. I-5 is the preferred route for cyclists traveling from Oregon into northern California. If you're biking from Denver to Colorado Springs, I-25 is the only reasonable way to go for a big stretch of that trip.

Thanks for the response, David!

"Bike facilities" are like you mention, cycleways, rcn, lcn, bike paths, etc.

But what I'm asking is if there's a way to adjust the weighting from the client side with optional parameters. For example, "bikeweight=x" where x=0-9, 5 is normal weight, 0 = same weight as a regular road, 9 = more favor given to the bike facility.

I think I like the weightings you all use now, though maybe it can use a little adjustment, but I think that other big bike directions online service puts way too much emphasis on bike facilities IMHO.

(I'm going to number your stars here for reference.)

1. How is "cyclist dismount" considered here? That is a tag in OSM, which I would hope could be used with routing, possibly coloring the line in these places and adding a caution. There are many places where a route could be much shorter if you can cut through these sections, even if that means walking a bike across.

2. Addressed below by others - not all highways are prohibited. Should this just be left to the OSM cycle tag? If it's prohibited, than the tag should provide that designation rather than assuming all highways are off limits.

3 & 4. No cars and peds is ideal. Does this also route for multi-use paths? It may also be a good candidate as an optional feature, since some MUPs are just too hazardous for cycling anything more than 5-10mph, and therefore aren't great for actually getting somewhere (which I would assume is the purpose of cycle routes).

5. Other factors could be good for weighting too. Max speed, number of lanes, traffic signals and road type could be added as well. Residential being the best, and highway being the worst. More lanes generally means higher traffic flow. But often there is a residential road with many traffic signals, so it's not always best to route that way.

In general, I see two very different types of people using this kind of service. Some just want to find the quickest way to bike from A to B (I'm usually in this camp). I'll take multi-lane roads, don't go far out of the way for cycling infrastructure, and don't generally ride on MUPs. However I think most riders are opposite those - they want a quiet, car-free zone, winding through residential areas, even if that means going slower and sharing a path with pedestrians. A feature to distinguish between these could be very helpful.

Thanks