ridewithgps.com - a great mapping tool (no GPS required)

[Bike Chick]

Great site!!! Thanks for the link.

[jobob]

Thank our pal SloJoeRecumbo who posted about it over on Bike Journal. I'm just a messenger

[wildeny]

I have problem of using this site with Firefox and Opera: Cannot "jump" to the city that I just enter. But don't have this problem with IE.

In FAQ, it said that they tested the site with Firefox & Opera but .... don't know what's wrong. I'm sure that I have Flash player ...

[zackham]

I have problem of using this site with Firefox and Opera: Cannot "jump" to the city that I just enter. But don't have this problem with IE.

In FAQ, it said that they tested the site with Firefox & Opera but .... don't know what's wrong. I'm sure that I have Flash player ...

I generally use Firefox 3.5 and jumping to a location works fine if I hit enter when I'm in the field, or if I click on the button. I have not tried opera recently though. If you are just hitting enter, try clicking on the button, that might work. If it still doesn't work, please let me know what operating system you are using and the exact browser version (Help -> About on Windows, Firefox -> About Firefox on a Mac).

I'm one of three guys behind the site and noticed some traffic coming in from this forum. Couldn't be happier that the site is being well received. We love working on it and it is getting better very rapidly. If you run into some limitations and wish it could do something it currently doesn't, just let us know through the Feedback button up top - we take suggestions very seriously and your feedback determines what features we implement first.

Thanks!
Zack

[nscrbug]

Wow!!! This mapping site is fantastic! Clearly, the best and easiest that I've ever used. If this is just the "beta" version, I can't wait to see the full-blown version. It gets a HUGE thumbs up from me!

[ny biker]

Well I must be an idiot because I can't figure out how to even get it to start in Arlington VA instead of the Pacific NW, which is where it defaulted to.

But then I find bikely and mapmyride to be infuriating, so maybe I'm map-drawing-impaired.

Update. And then the browser crashed, and then when I tried to Start Over it put a new starting point in the middle of whatever body of water is between Greenland and Newfoundland.

WTF?

Update 2: okay, now I'm able to map my local after-work training route -- except for the parts that are on a bike trail. I have the same problems with bikely and map my ride. How do you include bike trails when they're based on google maps, which don't include them?

It does work much better than bikely and mapmyride, though. Unfortunately without including bike trails, none of these sites helps me.

[SadieKate]

Well I must be an idiot because I can't figure out how to even get it to start in Arlington VA instead of the Pacific NW, which is where it defaulted to.

Are you trying to draw a route? At the top right corner, type in your city and state in the blank box next to the box that says JUMP!. Enter the city and state, and click JUMP!

[ny biker]

I finally figured that part out. It took me a while to figure out that "Jump" means "Select Starting Point."

But as a I said, anything that excludes bike trails is no help to me, so it's moot.

[wildeny]

I generally use Firefox 3.5 and jumping to a location works fine if I hit enter when I'm in the field, or if I click on the button. I have not tried opera recently though. If you are just hitting enter, try clicking on the button, that might work. If it still doesn't work, please let me know what operating system you are using and the exact browser version (Help -> About on Windows, Firefox -> About Firefox on a Mac).

Zack, I just tried, and this time it did work. I really don't know what went wrong last time.

I'm going to play on this site a little and see whether it is better than the one I'm using now (Bikemap).

Update:

I notice that I cannot drag the point (e.g. the last point) to other place. If I want to change some part of the route, what should I do? Undo (how many undos are allowed)? Start over?

[GLC1968]

I haven't tried this with my GPS yet, but as a mapping tool, it ROCKS!

Thanks for alerting us Jo...and thanks for making the site, Zack!

[MtnBikerChk]

I was skeptical but HOLY COW! Slick and way better than mapmyride.com!

[withm]

Well at first I could not get it to run at all. I guess the website was too busy. Tried again, and yes, it makes the maps really fast, and appears to make a nice cue sheet. But... there are two problems.

1. The cue sheet skips turns. It looks like the total mileage is probably good, but it totally missed 3 turns on my sample, that are clearly depicted in the corresponding map.

2. I can't figure out any way to print the thing. The cue sheet gets all intermingled and scrambled with other stuff on the page. I could not find any options to get around that.

3. A work around - I copied and pasted the cue sheet into Excel, and printed that - which is when I discovered the problems of missing turns on the cue.

If you KNOW your route, then you can easily check the cue sheet, but if you are mapping out a new route - well - take the cue with a grain of salt. If you might be running into cold or darkness - you might want to drive the route first to make sure all the details are recorded properly.

[jobob]

Surprise, the very first item in the FAQ just happens to address that.

I'll post it here for everyone's edification ...

Help! Cuesheet entries are wrong!

You may notice a right turn should actually be a left, east should be west or other such inconsistencies. This is unfortunately a common problem, however the issue is not with our software. What is most likely happening is this: you are happily mapping along some road, and you are coming up on a turn and click on the intersection of the turn before clicking along the new street. What happens is Google misinterprets the click in the intersection and continues on, then thinks you need to turn around in order to make that turn. This also can happen when you are just traveling straight along a street: clicking near an intersection can cause Google to think you want to turn there, which will cause an extra unnecessary entry in the cuesheet as well as a little blip on the map. To keep this problem from happening, map with a higher zoom level. This will allow you to easily see when these 'blips' occur, letting you know to undo the last click and try again. Also, when mapping some turn, instead of clicking the intersection of the turn, click past the intersection in the direction you wish to turn.

Remember, always double check your cuesheet before saving a route -- we don't want you or someone who finds your route making erroneous turns! It only takes a minute or so to double check a cuesheet and remove any unnecessary entries. This problem is not unique to us, even Map My Ride announced it in a recent newsletter. Here is what they said:
When using "follow roads" and trying to map your route around or through an intersection, make sure that you click on points after the intersection rather than directly in the intersection. Setting points in this way guards against slight, unintentional detours around intersections and ensures accuracy in your maps.

And they address cue sheet printing in the FAQ too:

Cue sheet printing

We are aware our current cuesheet printing is sub-par, and are actively creating a high quality map and cuesheet PDF generator. You will be able to either save the PDF or print at your leisure. Keep checking back for this feature!

One of the many things I like about this site is that the developers are open to suggestions, are not hesitant to point out things that the site still lacks, and it looks like they're working on addressing those issues. It's still a work in progress but they're certainly getting there, IMHO.