Navigation question

[someguy]

Maybe this is a numpty question... but I tend to use a combination of Waze and Google Maps to plan routes, and it's left me wondering whether the "fastest" route is actually slower than the "shortest" route if you're on a bike, since you can often filter through gaps that cars couldn't.

Ignoring the aesthetics of a ride and just focussing on the time taken, would you think that "fastest" or "shortest" route is actually fastest on a bike?

I suppose it depends on where/what you're riding, so let's give it some parameters:

1) You're going a longer distance (say London to Brighton) on a big bike, and you have a full licence, so you can use motorways
2) You're going a longer distance (say London to Brighton) on a 125, and you only have a CBT anyway, so you can't use motorways
3) You're in central London doing a quick run to work - where there are no motorways anyway, and the size of the bike doesn't make a difference

Thoughts?

[CaNsA]

Full licence?

Choose "Shortest" as you can slip between most traffic.

[WD Forte]

No easy answer as it really does depend on bike, rider, route, time.
We all know a clear motorway is faster than a traffic stuffed B road
with lights and roundabouts etc every half mile
but we what we have to deal with in reality is the messy stuff between these extremes.
____________________
bikers smell of wee

[Taught2BCauti...]

You still need to apply a little common sense, as either option could take you through busy town centres, roads with 30mph speed limits, or long delays on motorways.

Also, if planning journeys that could involve toll roads (e.g. through France and Spain), either option could cost tens of pounds more than the other, depending on the roads used, fuel costs, and toll charges.

Google Maps does have options to show live traffic flow, historical data (for different days of the week and time of day), and other online maps (AA and Highways Agency) can show planned roadworks, accidents, etc.

You can also customise the route that google gives you, by clicking and dragging to include or avoid certain sections.

Some Sat Nav programs allow you to set custom profiles for different types of vehicle, and to choose an 'optimum' route, that involves both fast and short sections, which is sometimes better than the Google Maps guestimate.

Ideally, you should have a back-up route in mind for every journey.
____________________
Honda Varadero XL125(V8)
www.TheFutureIsHere.eu

[Tungtvann]

'Shortest' routes tend to have a lower average speed limit thought.

[Taught2BCauti...]

[Furrybiker]

Shortest route in town fastest in the country. I have found that the fastest route in town will always assume that a 50 mph road is faster than a 30 mph even if it means a detour. It ain't necessarily so.

[dydey90]

Personally I never use the shortest route. T-junctions and traffic lights will always slow you down. Also, I once ended up following a satnav down a 'road' that was used exclusively by sheep.
____________________
This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[G]

[recman]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[barrkel]

Going long distances, you're not realistically going to beat motorways, especially if you're doing triple digit speeds for extended periods. Whatever route has the most lanes and highest speed limits is hard to beat.

In cities, things are more mixed. If you're going a fair pace through traffic, your biggest timesinks will be traffic lights, narrow roads and right hand turns across traffic.

You can't go as fast on narrow roads as wide roads (whether there's traffic or not); there's less time to react to hazards. When there is traffic, narrow roads can completely block you.

Traffic lights, especially if they're unsynchronized or badly synchronized, can waste heaps of time. I spend about half my 13 minute commute in London waiting at traffic lights. But back roads that avoid traffic lights have loads of pedestrian crossings, lots of humps, frequently are past schools, have loads of junctions that make overtaking dodgier, lots of cyclists, pedestrians coming out between parked cars. It's riskier to maintain a decent pace.

And London boroughs often alter layouts, make roads one way with contra-flow cycle lanes, etc., in order to discourage through traffic and keep it to the main roads.

Bus lanes on red routes can be a major timesaver too.

So in London I reckon sticking mostly to main roads (i.e. the fastest route) with the occasional shortcut makes sense, but you need to know the roads well to know which shortcuts add up.
____________________
Bikes: S1000R, SH350; Exes: Vity 125, PS125, YBR125, ER6f, VFR800, Brutale 920, CB600F, SH300x4
Best road ever ridden: www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2MhNxUEYtQ

[Wonko The Sane]

I often go Coventry - Wakefield,

I'll take the A444 past Nuneaton instead of the M69 as it's more interesting, bit slow through Burton on Trent but back onto country A road and around Derby

Once I reach Chesterfield I'll head out to the M1 as going through Sheffield centre is a bit of a long loop, 30mph and just weird so I'll skip past it on the motorway for a few junctions.


so, as others have said, it depends on the route, if the A road winds through a load of small villages at 30mph then a longer route that doesn't slow down as much will be quicker.

As you're on a bike long stints of motorway are boring, but some stints can make life easier.
____________________
Looking to pass your CBT / Bike tests in Bury Lancashire? try www.focusridertraining.co.uk Would recommend.
They're also on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-Rider-Training/196832923734251

[G]

[mentalboy]

Devon to London is far quicker for me up M5/4 rather than A30/303. Cameras, caravans, lorries do not always permit overtaking on the crappy roads - and generally speaking there are fewer gentlemen in stripy cars with flashing lights on the M-ways than there are on the fast A roads
____________________
Make mine a Corona.

[talkToTheHat]

I occaisonaly claim care not for the ultimate speed and will b-road it across the country. Using knowledge of the local area, heavy traffic is avoided by knowing how to avoid approaching the saturated nodes from the worst directions or at all. Waze is tempting, and will link up sections of traffic free road but they are with the most horrendous junctions, either due to traffic saturation or completed lack of the ability to see oncoming traffic.

I don't routinely use a satnav, and have not left my route planning entirely to a computer after learning why Autoroute Europe was not a completed solution during several touring holidays in the late 90s of belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and as little of France as we could get away with. Whether or not it faster and shorter to use the oversaturated urban bypasses or the road through the middle of nowhere mostly depended on the time of day, what was being dug up, and my or my sisters ability to accurately follow traffic news and knowing what traffic news to listen to.

Of course being able to discuss traffic patterns with the locals is handy, but should not be attempted anywhere where the language is unintelligible, so most of Yorkshire for a start as I sound BBC enough to get misleading answers or shouting at foreigners. Taxi drivers or delivery drivers at petrol stations often more use as they actually drive, although white and local taxi drivers in areas nearest to me will generally take questions on directions or traffic as a sign that they are being spoken to immigrant scum and therefore be more hostile than just the national habit of shouting at foreigners.

My experiences in France have it thereabouts as fun as Yorkshire, but my French is obviously non-native which does not help. I could go on with anecdotes of being chased out of a hotel somewhere near Halle because the only monolingual family member used epic shouting at foreigners skills to convince the locals we were Ukrainian and other such fun but I think I went way off topic.

If you can't be local, look at a map with traffic information displayed and think your way around the problem. Often the best route is neither the theoretical fastest nor the shortest, but a combination of the two as route planning algorithms are not often smart enough to know when miking time is, or when the football is, or when the supply of whatever the local wildlife are hooked on has been interrupted so the mostly harmless neighbourhood is now best avoided.

Also, Google maps can't cope with there being impeding snow and suchlike, so the sane people are not driving over the hills, but the road around the hills has traffic because of this, and thusly directs me over the hills in foul weather and around the hills on the days I'd rather hit the twisties...
____________________
Bandit. does. everything.