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Planning a ride in unfamiliar territory. How do you check the route you are planning will be OK to ride or walk? Here are some tips using a short route from Old Hatfield to Lower Woodside, previously planned and saved in RideWithGPS.
Sign into the RideWithGPS website, go to your list of planned routes and select the one to check.
Select the Edit button - this enables the Google Pegman, but be careful not to click on the map area or you will extend the route (Ctrl+Z will undo that).
Select your preferred map layer from the drop-down (top right of the map area)
RideWithGPS automatically took the route through the grounds of Hatfield House.
The picture shows the route on the Google Maps layer in RideWithGPS, but any map layer can be used.
Stick man
1) Drag the Pegman over the map. Routes that have been surveyed by Google show up in blue and are usually well surfaced.
Part of my route is not blue, so it could be a private road, going through a locked gate, or it might be a permitted off-road route such as a bridleway or towpath (Google have only surveyed a few of those).
Using the Google Stick Man
Google Streetview image
2) Drag the Pegman to where your route leaves the blue highlighted road and release him there.
Inspect the area by panning around and zooming. Here we see both a locked gate and a Private No Entry sign.
Tip: It's also useful to look at junctions to familiarise yourself with the layout before you get there on a ride.
3) Use satellite or aerial view to check off-road sections.
Satellite view is also available in Google Maps, Bing Maps, Google Earth and many other route planning apps.
My route (red) on an OS Map
4) Check Rights of Way (UK only)
Look at an area, or upload a .gpx file using https://www.osola.org.uk/rides/gpsuploader.htm , which shows it on an OS map, to check if it follows a public right of way.
The red line is the uploaded .gpx for my route displayed on a OS map, showing that it is not following a right of way.
It looks like I need to adjust that route to avoid Hatfield House grounds - so back to RideWithGPS.
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