WEBSITE OF THE DAY - Cyclestreets

Getting on your bike just got better

19 August 2010 1:00 GMT / By Ian Hughes

A lot of fuss has been made recently about “Boris’ Bikes” - the new public cycling scheme in London.

These schemes have been successful in countless cities all over the world, but as soon as it comes to London, the wheels start to fall off a bit.

We’ve had residents complaining about the docking stations: too many bikes, not enough bikes, they’re too expensive, they’re not safe and so on and so on.

We reckon it’s a brilliant idea though and anything that gets people off the Tube and out into the fresh (well, sort of fresh) air is a good thing.

However, the map that Transport for London provides as guidance for cycle routes comes up a bit short, so we went looking for an alternative.

Enter www.cyclestreets.net, a UK-wide cycling route planner, complete with handy pictures and even video of the routes, so you know you’re on the right track.

You punch in your start and end points and the site spits out route options based on the weight of traffic (which is tellingly rated in terms of “hostility”) and also gives an idea of the gradient profile. So if you see a big hill halfway through your route, you can find a way round it.

The routes are exportable to GPS devices too, so you can take your routes with you when you get peddling.

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