Most of the roads RouteCycle uses come from OpenStreetMap. This is great in places where the OSM data is detailed and well-maintained — but it also means that if the OSM quality in your area is poor, the routes can be poor too.
A real example: in the United States, most roads are missing a very important tag called surface. Without it, I cannot tell whether a road is paved or unpaved. So a route that looks fine on the map can turn out to be a dirt or gravel road in real life. The same problem exists for things like road quality, smoothness, cycleway tagging, and access restrictions.
I have some workarounds for this. Some of them are already live, others are on my future list. It's a big separate task, and it takes time.
If you get a really bad or dangerous route — especially with no toggles turned on — please send it to me. Include:
- The link to the bad route
- A short note explaining what is wrong (highway, gravel, dangerous traffic, etc.)
- If possible, a link to a good route in the same area as a reference
You can reach me by email or on Instagram. Reports like this help me improve the project a lot.
