Camden Cycling Campaign

Google Maps features:

We display routes and other information over the standard Google Maps. Here are a few points for those not familiar with Google Maps:

Panning:

To move to a different part of the map:

Drag the map: Simply hold down the mouse button anywhere on the map and move it.

Or use the Map Controller at the top left of the map:

Zooming:

The map can be viewed at many scales. Use the Map Controller or the Zoom In button to change the scale. The Zoom Back button takes you back to the original scale and centre point. A double click on the map will zoom and centre the map at the clicked point.

Pop-up user information:

The ? button near the top right of the map brings up a set of labels describing the various map controls.

Map types:

The map opens as a normal Google street map. You can also select other views using the Map Type menu. The cycle routes and other information are visible in all views. Satellite, Hybrid and Terrain views are often useful for viewing areas in more detail. The OSM views are based on the Open Street Map community mapping initiative. This open mapping project (a community effort in the same sense as Wikipedia) offers additional information and is updated and extended on a daily basis. The OSM maps currently cover about 90% of London streets. Interested users are encouraged to consider becoming contributors.

Route menu:

The route menu is organised in folders with a one or two-level structure: where the second level is used it groups routes by areas of London corresponding roughly to boroughs.

Some folders are initially closed: . To open or close a folder, click on the folder's icon or its name. Individual route names are coloured whenever the route is visible on the map, otherwise they are black. When the mouse rolls over the name of a folder that contains some visible routes, the labels appear next to those routes on the map. When the mouse rolls over the name of a route that is visible on the map, the route is highlighted in red.

You can shift the menu to the right to uncover the map - click on the icon.

Viewing and hiding routes:

The main LCN and off-road routes are visible at startup but many other routes are not – it would make the map too confusing to show them all at once. To view a hidden route click on it's name (which will be listed in the menu in black text).

Focus on a route:

When a route name (visible or hidden) is clicked the route is 'focussed'. Focussing displays the route if it is hidden, changes the route colour to indigo and displays its description and any additional information markers. If the route is mainly off-screen the map will pan to bring more of it onto the screen. To stop the panning click anywhere on the map.

Clickable routes:

You can also click anywhere on a route to focus the route. (Firefox users may find the clickable routes feature unreliable, especially on MacOS X).

Route description:

When a route is focussed an information window appears showing a textual description and a Details tab giving distance and provides an option for emailing a link to the route.

One-way sections of routes have arrows drawn on top of them. Roll the mouse over an arrow to see a short label.

Additional route information markers:

Some routes have additional information markers that show when the route is focussed. Click on them to get further information about the route at the position of the marker.

Automatic route planning:

The Plan a Route... button has been available since December 2007. This provides access to an early prototype of a route planning service based on the Open Street Map database of roads in London and a route planning program developed by Cambridge Cycling Campaign. This is for experimental use only. The OpenStreetMap database for London is not yet complete and hence cannot support the generation of optimal routes.

Zooming:

The Zoom In button invites you to drag a rectangle. I.e. hold the mouse button down while moving from top left to bottom right of the area you wish to view at a larger scale. You can cancel the operation by clicking without dragging. The Zoom Back button resets the map scale and re-centres it.

Viewing shops, hazards and bike stand markers:

Click on the relevant item at the top of the menu to view these markers. Bike stands are displayed selectively in an area of your choosing. If you click on the  Stands menu item you will be asked to indicate a region of interest by dragging a rectangle.

Printing maps:

The result obtained when printing Google Maps is highly dependent on the web browser you use. Recent versions of Internet Explorer and Safari do an almost-reasonable job. Printing from Firefox is poor.

The best way to get decent printed results from Google Maps is to use the technique known as 'screen grabbing'. This involves a keyboard shortcut or using a separate tool to take a 'snapshot' of the screen and printing the resulting image (tools with screen-grab functions include Preview for Mac OS, Jing for Windows or Mac, ?? for Linux) .

The Forum:

We have set up a Forum for users to share their experience and communicate with the developers. We look forward to reading your questions, comments, suggestions and criticisms.

Adding to the databases of routes, hazards, stands and shops:

Contributed routes and information on hazards, bike stands and shops are welcomed. The procedure for adding and editing all these kinds of information can be found here.

Links to customised instances of the map:

Although all the routes are in a single database it is possible to construct many views of the map, each with a menu customised to the needs of a different group of users. User groups are encouraged to make customised views of the map to meet their users' needs. The simplest way to do this is to start with any existing view of the map, change the view by turning routes and markers on and off as you wish, then use the Capture map link to record the map's state in the browser address box. You can then bookmark the resulting link or copy it to a web page.

Legal information:

By using these maps you are agreeing their Terms of Use which can be found here.