I recently found that the OsmAnd app lets you adjust the safety of your bike routes, so you can prefer safety over distance.
When navigating, click the “Ride Style” button and choose “prefer unpaved roads.” That name made me think it would find gravel/off-road trails, but it actually selects safer roads. In my experience this setting chooses the optimal routes–it’s finding the same general path that I would pick based on local knowledge, and it found improvements where I could take a slightly different street for a few blocks to avoid cars!
Also, OsmAnd~ is available via Fdroid with all the paywalls removed.
I know I’m late to the discussion, but I was experimenting with this recently so wanted to add my experience in the UK.
I’m on a gravel bike and I’m a beginner cyclist although I’ve done lots of walking/hiking in the past so I’m used to being out and about. It’s currently autumn so relatively wet.
With the default option (balanced), I get sent down a mix of minor country roads (good) and some paths that are in theory bridleways but in practice they are extremely rutted footpaths 1m wide with 35cm of brambles on either side. When I say “rutted” I mean 0.5m deep (and steep) holes that are full of mud/water. Absolutely impossible to ride down on a gravel bike as the holes are the full width of the path, and I’d be amazed if anyone managed it even on a mountain bike.
With “prefer byways” I get minor roads, which in my area means paved (asphalt) minor roads and country lanes, plus firm(ish) cycle routes. The routing engine doesn’t refuse to use a non-paved roads, but it avoids it where possible.
Basically, “prefer byways” is a good option generally for me. “Balanced” would probably be OK in summer except where the paths are overgrown (although a machete would be required as mentioned by someone else!).
Dude, no. I live off a dirt road and people treat it like a race track.
If they have an option called “prefer safer roads” then maybe, but if the app says unpaved, I’m going to assume that’s what they are going for even if some of them are paved. They can “fix the glitch” server side any time they want without alerting your client side app.
Even in a city we have trails but if you use them to get places you will have to go by and large from trails to major roads. better to just stick to the bike lanes for commuting. trails are great for req though or if one fits in well with your commute but I would not have the route go out of the way to get to one.
This option weirdly does the opposite. The normal routes will put me on a trail that dumps you out onto basically a highway for the last mile.
With this option, it prefers safe roads the whole journey over a bike trail+death trap option.
I wouldn’t recommend this option for inexperienced riders. Especially not on a city bike. I’m a somewhat advanced gravel rider and I switched this option off. To many times you can’t continue without a machete. I’m in Germany BTW.
Sounds like it might vary. I don’t have dirt roads near me, so it selects safe roads with slower traffic instead. Hopefully they can add a proper “prefer safer roads” option, but this works for me in the meantime.
I think the main thing for me in osmand was to uncheck “fastest route” option somewhere in the navigation settings. That was some terrible routing before i found out about that.
However i have been using brouter as the routing engine in osmand and never went back. You can use the brouter profiles from f.e bikerouter, or create your own. Haven’t used the osmand internal engine in years so not sure how it developed in the meantime. You lose some details in osmand, road surfaces i think, but not important to me, i see it on the map, super happy with brouter engine.
I’m a fan of cycle streets
Does a good job of highlighting quieter routes
Not available in my country :(
