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Did we get a consensus as to whether discussing bike routes in a region falls into this space or not?

Having read some of the answers to date, it seems that two issues come up.

  1. Routes are somewhat of a regional thing.
  2. The software is not up to the task.

Well #2 we dump on the developers. But I suspect linking to an external site for a suggested map is not a bad suggestion.

For #1 I would think a route tag, along with a set of regional tags might do the trick. Though of course a great deal of discipline on tagging would be needed to keep the regions somewhat aligned. What I call Toronto, you call Scarborough.

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  • To what level of depth are we talking 'routes'; are you talking intra-city, inter-city, etc... and should that make a difference? i wish i knew a better commute in my city, but i'm not sure if anyone would be able to make their answer not an incredibly localized one able to help anyone else.
    – mfg
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 20:52
  • Further reading suggestion: The Photo Stack Exchange site discussed a similar issue: "photography location tips okay?" - meta.photo.stackexchange.com/questions/63/…
    – Robert Cartaino
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 23:17

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It has not been decided I think? I would personally lean towards yes, as long as it's pretty specific.

Bad - "What are good rides in Vancouver?"

Good - "I need to commute from Simon Fraser University to downtown Vancouver, what roads should I take?"

I have started bike commuting in two cities in recent years and had these sorts of questions for both of them. Further, when freshly moved to a new city and having not really made contact with the local cycling community I pretty much had to wing it. This included ending up on some seriously 'wrong' roads.

I would like to avoid that in the future and help others avoid it.

Especially for commuting when you are likely riding on the roads during the times of day with the heaviest traffic.

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  • Commute-specific rides sound like a great idea
    – Dan McClain
    Commented Aug 26, 2010 at 14:26
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I would vote no. So far, the SE sites have avoided being regional, and I would think that this site should continue this tradition in order to stay manageable.

Roads also change, and do we really want to have out-of-date routes here?

General questions about how to plan a route, however, would be excellent and helpful.

Edit: I'm also worried that route requests could take over this site. They're also fairly subjective; if I ask for the best bike route from [location] to [other location], how do I decide which answer is best without riding all those routes?

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  • That's somewhat of the beauty of this type of site though. If Road XYZ used to be great during the morning rush and is terrible now due to more road furniture, someone can edit that answer and change it to an alternative answer. (Again, I'm being specific about commuting routes)
    – bikesandcode
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 20:52
  • I feel that having routes here would be unsustainable, but It'll be up to the community, of course! (By the way, I love planning routes almost as much as riding them.)
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 21:07
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    Programming in Portland, cooking in Chippewa ; it makes sense that these would be unlocalized. But does bicycling.se need to follow only that path? I agree that route a to b in city x is not a good use of this site; but general resources would be.
    – mfg
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 21:21
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    Wouldn't want this site to have routes - this is a worldwide (or at least I hope it will be a worldwide) site so there are too many routes (and shops and prices) for it to serve its whole audience. I think it might work at a much more localised level (say a UK version) but at this level guidance maybe (how to find a route), specifics no.
    – Murph
    Commented Aug 26, 2010 at 9:23
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I'd say no as well, the software used for stackexchange is not well suited for describing routes, it needs better support with a mapping software to make it feasible.

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I'd vote no.. This is what sites like MapMyRide do well.

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  • A CW post would be perfectly capable of maintaining a list of those sites
    – mfg
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 21:17
  • Map my ride/toporoute and the like don't really do a good job of overlaying 3 rides at once. "Take this route in the morning during the summer, this route in the afternoon and this route on weekday mornings during the school year" However, an answer here could totally link to saved versions of those three routes.
    – bikesandcode
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 21:51
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    @bikesandcode - I'm not seeing the connection between your issue with the limitation of MapMyRide and whether or not this is a better forum for such information.
    – Christopher Scott
    Commented Aug 26, 2010 at 19:00
  • The connection is basically that MapMyRide and similar sites are a worse forum for answers to how to commute from point a to point b. They are excellent for 'here is a route' but not for a more complicated answer. Which you could do here with a few sentences interspersed with links to MMR or whatever. That's all.
    – bikesandcode
    Commented Aug 26, 2010 at 19:06
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I vote no as well--it would not be applicable to every user across a broad and geographically diverse community.

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