I accidentally did something that had the useful effect of separating the route from its actual road on the map so i could see the road itself, with the CT route separated from it by a little. This seemed very useful for just seeing for example whether you're on a path or a bridleway in the UK - a designation that gets hidden when the route trace sits on top. Trouble is, I don't know how I did it! It seemed to go away when i zoomed back out.
Did I just have a nervous breakdown, or is this a real thing? And if so, how? Many thanks to whoever tells me more...I have searched but i don't know what to call this behavior - slide? Offset?
Comments
Catherine, you haven't made clear if you're referring to the app or the website nor have you included an example which leaves me a lot of guesswork.
on the website, we can tap on any point of a route and see some basic info:
In relation to your specific request here is a CT map of part of a route
Here is the exact same route, same scale etc. but the map style is OS
However, if I zoom in you can see that the plotted route varies slightly from the marked path/trail/road.
Perhaps this is what happened?
For reference, this was done on the website, using Chrome on my Android phone.
As an aside, I believe that CT is particularly adept at not choosing paths where bikes are not permitted - it's certainly more conservative (and therefore safer/more responsible than other services) unless we physically drag a viapoint there.
Testing a recreation of the same route using the Cycle Travel website on a Windows PC, using Firefox, does not show any drift from the track on the OS map on zooming in. So while the OS mapping in the 1:50k style is not quite as exact as the 1:25k style and can cause the effect, that is not an issue in this case.
However, accessing the Cycle Travel website on my Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy A55), when zooming into the OS maps I do see material deviations - some much wilder than Hobbes's screenshot. So definitely something not quite right. (Perhaps some unhelpful change in the Android operating system is the cause?)
I don’t know if Catherine’s issue is OS-related – it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before and certainly not anything intentional!
But on the OS point – there is a difference between how the website displays OS mapping and how the apps do. OS Landranger/Explorer maps use a different projection to most webmaps. The website is capable of displaying this natively, i.e. with the grid lines aligned straight up and across. The map display library (Maplibre GL) used by the apps isn’t. Instead, the apps do some very convoluted maths to warp the OS mapping into the projection used by the map display library. The corollary of this is that there’s likely to be some artefacts and deviations.
On a related topic, the OS 1:50k (Landranger) maps are very ‘cartographic’ – the features are drawn to be clear on paper/screen, not necessarily with an exact relation to where they appear on the ground. So at this scale you should probably expect to see some deviation.
Thanks. I couldn't send an example because i couldn't reproduce it. I was on chrome, on a on a laptop and using the OS map. I made the route and it was, as always, here and there not exactly aligned. But it wasn't that the route diverged slightly from the track of the roads - I understand that behavior because of how that type of mapping works. It was that the route as a whole shifted slightly down from where it was originally so that the the route was slightly offset by an equal amount all along the trail. Imagine i had traced the route onto tracing paper and then shifted the tracing paper down from its original position right on top to being a smidge below. It paralleled the route all along the track with a consistent small offset. I thought it was a material advantage - certainly not a complaint.
Also, i do appreciate the picking of bridle trails rather than foot paths. Having accidentally got on footpaths by mistake and misdirection, it can be an exciting (even harrowing) experience. I'm very impressed with this product. Thanks!!
Richard
Understand your comments re OS maps and the different tchniques in the website and apps. But in my test route for Catherine's location (https://cycle.travel/map/journey/963037 ) , when loaded into the website on my Android phone using Firefox, when I then zoom quite closely and Explorer cartography is displayed, at a certain zoom levels the route can suddenly become offset from the OS map by approx 100m to the west, and about 20m north. I guess this is replicating what Catherine saw. Changing the zoom very slightly repositions the route to align with the map.
I'm not saying it matters, but it is a feature I can replicate readily - on all the routes I have checked. I had not seen it until I went looking, as normally I use a PC for planning and the effect does not occur there; hence I'm pointing at Android (or Firefox on Android?).
HTH
Yes! That's exactly it, Simon! I was beginning to think I was merely bonkers... And - I think it is a plus if you can do it on purpose. If you can control it, you can use it to see what's right under the track which is often useful. In fact, i sometimes ad a 'Via' to pull the route away a bit so I can see it better, and then remove the via so it snaps back. But to have the whole thing slide over a bit is great! I saw it on my PC! Maybe it occurs at some particular magnification that you might easily blow right by. (Richard could make it a special button!).
Catherine,
The screenshot by Hobbes in the first response already confirmedshows the effect does happen, I was just elaborating on how I replicated it. But I can't get it to happen on my PC (Windows 11Pro with Firefox, and with Edge). If you can advise details of your PC and browser, it might help Richard find what is happening (assuming he feels it warrants pursuit - it's a pretty obscure "feature"!)
Alas, i have not managed to make it happen again. So, it remains a mystery at least to me!