Bicycle Route Planner
The EFA can also be used to plan bike routes.
Three different options are available to bike riders planning a route through the city:
- A bike-only route from point A to point B (without using public transport
- Bike & Ride (biking from an origin to a stop or station and continuing your journey to a destination using public transport)
- Bring your bike with you (biking from an origin to a stop or station, taking your bike with you on public transport to a stop or station and then continuing your journey to a destination on bike), but allowing for certain restrictions.
The integration of digital elevation designs make it possible to route bike journeys that avoid steep climbs. In doing so, public transport can be used for otherwise cumbersome stretches of the journey.
Optimal bike routing is determined on the basis of enriched GIS-data.
For this, there are a number of attributes in DIVAGeo that can be assigned to the links in order to create routes e.g. like bike paths on the side of a road, leisure routes or unpaved paths. In London, data collected by the LCC (London Cycling Campaign) were used, in Stuttgart information was digitalized from printed bike maps.
By emphasizing the various attributes in the routing algorithm, bike routes can be calculated that are safer, more convenient and better match individual preferences.
A bicycle route planner for the German city of Stuttgart went online in September 2007 (The English version is available under http://www.vvs.de/en/index.php). An easy-to-follow layout assists users through the most important steps.
To start, users must select among four types of routes: leisure, quickest, advanced or an individually set route.
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The next step asks users to choose an origin and destination using addresses, POIs or points on a map:
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In the third step users choose whether they want set a bike-only route or use public transport for a section of their route.
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The set route is displayed:
a) as a geographic map by the VVS
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b) superimposed onto an aerial view of Stuttgart
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c) as directions in text form (turn-by-turn).
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When integrated digital elevation information is available, users can view the elevation profile of their route:
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Finally, the set route can also be downloaded onto a navigation system as a tracking-file (e.g. in GPX-format).
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Additional information about bicycle routing in London is presented below: (http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en&ptOptionsActive=1) Data collected by the LCC (London Cycling Campaign) were used for the bike paths.
Bikes are offered as a means of transport:
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Individual preferences can be set using additional options:
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As a result, users receive a detailed bike route with highlighted bike paths:
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