CycleStreets, the UK-wide cycle journey planner website, today reached a new milestone: a third of a million cycle journeys planned. Route 333,333 was a typical cross-city route, in Cambridge.
The 333,333 journeys amounts to 3.85 million km of route planning – that's an awful lot of cycling!
This is also the equivalent of cycling to the moon ten times, or cycling round the earth almost 100 times.
CycleStreets is an independent project created by two cycling web-developers based in Cambridge. It uses the excellent data in OpenStreetMap which is collected by thousands of people all around the UK, creating the 'Wikipedia of maps'. Cyclists – and anyone else – can get involved by adding information to www.openstreetmap.org. CycleStreets is truly a project for cyclists, by cyclists.
Planning a cycle route is quick and easy with CycleStreets. Just go to www.cyclestreets.net, search / click on a start point and finish point, and hit the 'Plan route' button. A map and detailed journey plan is given.
People can also plan a journey on the move. A free mobile phone version of CycleStreets is available at www.cyclestreets.net/mobile – currently for iPhone, but Android and other versions are in the works. A range of other apps, including great apps from Bike Hub (including a bikeshop finder), Cycle Hire app, London Cycle, and London Bike App also make use of CycleStreets routing – with other app-makers coming on board to add cycle-friendly routing to their apps.
We're helping get new cyclists on their bikes. Said one user:
"Brilliant facility. I have just started cycling to work and found it very useful for planning routes and trying them out."
CycleStreets' 'Routemaster', Simon Nuttall explains the project's roots:
"As cycling advocates and campaigners, one of the things we hear most often from people who don't cycle is their fear of traffic. We've built CycleStreets to help them discover cycle-friendly routes and cut-throughs you never knew existed. CycleStreets aims to be like a knowledgeable cyclist, wherever you are in the UK."
CycleStreets will this week be launching a funding drive to raise funds for two full-time developers. With so many requests for new features and ways of using the system coming from user feedback, we want to move CycleStreets to the next level.
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For more information contact:
Martin Lucas-Smith, Developer;
www.cyclestreets.net/contacts
