CycleStreets explained

CycleStreets
Founded Date:2009
Area Served:United Kingdom
Focus:Cycling
Homepage:CycleStreets

CycleStreets is a not-for-profit United Kingdom organisation that provides a free-to-use national cycle journey planner for the United Kingdom. The planner uses OpenStreetMap data for routing, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission for height data and official postcode data. It was launched in March 2009 and by January 2010 had planned 100,000 journeys. As of August 2015, the site has planned over 45 million itineraries. It was 'Highly Commended' at the 2009 ACT Travelwise awards. It provides worldwide routing using OpenStreetMap data.

History

CycleStreets is a development of the Cambridge Cycle Campaign Journey Planner, which was launched in 2006.[1] CycleStreets itself was launched on 20 March 2009;[2] which was by co-incidence the same day that it was announced that the Transport Direct Portal was about to introduce cycle routing for a small number of trial locations including Manchester.[3] In June 2009, a feature to plan circular routes was added[4] and the project was featured in The Guardian newspaper.[5] In August 2009 functionality was added to export routes for use in GPS device[6] and the ability to route via ferry services[7] and then in October 2009 the project released elevation profiles[8] and 'Balanced routes'.[9]

In December 2009, CycleStreets was 'Highly Commended' in the ACT Travelwise annual awards.[10]

In February 2010, the ability to share short video clips was added[11] and then in March 2010 CycleStreets added Google Streetview images to the route description pages[12] and a post code look-up function.[13] They reported their 100,000th journey plan itinerary the same month.[14]

Development

In 2007, during the development of CycleStreets, Simon Nuttall and Martin Lucas-Smith advised Transport Direct on the CycleNetXChange data exchange standard for cycle route data which was later used in the Transport Direct Portal cycle journey planner.[15] [16]

In July 2009, CycleStreets was presented at the OpenStreetMap annual 'State of the Map' Conference[17] In September 2009, Martin Lucas Smith of CycleStreets presented the project at the School of Cartography Summer School.[18]

The project held its first 'Developer Day' in March 2010, where technical issues relating to the project were discussed[19] and there was a session on cycle routing at WhereCampEU.[20]

Funding

CycleStreets is a not-for-profit project and has been largely self-funded. It has received grants from the following organisations (in chronological order):

The project has also benefited from a number of donations in kind, including geographic information donated in OpenStreetMap.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: About. CycleStreets. 2010-03-28.
  2. Web site: Welcome to CycleStreets!. 2009-03-20. CycleStreets. 2010-03-28.
  3. Web site: Manchester cyclists first to benefit from pioneering online route planner. 2009-03-20. 2010-03-28.
  4. Web site: Planning a circular route. CycleStreets. 2009-07-13. 2010-03-28.
  5. News: Tube strike chaos? Get on your bike — with CycleStreets. . London . Peter . Robins . 2009-06-10.
  6. Web site: Exporting cycle routes to GPS. CycleStreets. 2009-08-14. 2010-03-28.
  7. Web site: Ferry Crossings and more. CycleStreets. 2009-08-05. 2010-03-28.
  8. Web site: Elevation Profiles in CycleStreets. CycleStreets. 2009-10-08. 2010-03-28.
  9. Web site: Balanced routes. CycleStreets. 2009-10-08. 2010-03-28.
  10. Web site: CycleStreets 'Highly Commended' at the ACT Travelwise Awards 2009. 2 December 2009 . 2010-03-28.
  11. Web site: Photomap shares video. CycleStreets. 2010-02-02. 2010-03-28.
  12. Web site: View from the Street – in itinerary listings. 2010-01-17. 2010-03-28.
  13. Web site: Postcode searching added. CycleStreets. 2010-03-14. 2010-03-28.
  14. Web site: 100,000 cycle journeys planned on CycleStreets. CycleStreets. 2010-01-16. 2010-03-28.
  15. Web site: A meeting of the Department for Transport's Mapping Working Party, which map developers Simon and Martin attended. CycleStreets. 2007-07-03. 2010-03-28.
  16. Web site: schema targetNamespace="http://www.cyclenetxchange.org.uk/cnm". Department for Transport. 2010-03-28.
  17. Web site: CycleStreets quickfire presentation to OSM State of the Map 2009. Slideshare. 2009-07-10. 2010-03-28.
  18. Web site: CycleStreets presentation to Society of Cartographers. 10 September 2009 . SlideShare. 2010-03-28.
  19. Web site: Lessons from the Developer Day. CycleStreets. 2010-03-10. 2010-03-28.
  20. Web site: WhereCamp.EU session - CycleStreets cycle routing. WhereCampEU. 2010-03-28.
  21. Web site: Now It Can Be Revealed. Changing pace. 2009-07-15. 2010-04-13. dead. https://archive.today/20120708164456/http://changingpace.info/2009/07/15/now-it-can-be-revealed. 2012-07-08.
  22. Web site: Cycling Scotland (homepage).
  23. Web site: Funding grant from Cambridge Sustainable City. 21 February 2010. CycleStreets. 2010-03-28.
  24. Web site: Award of grant from the Co-op Community Fund. CycleStreets. 2010-03-25. 2010-03-28.