Analyze Route🔗
Bikerouter offers various ways to analyze the route – from a rough overview to detailed information about every small section.
The following information is available in Bikerouter:
- Brief overview in the footer
- Distance Icons on the Route Line
- Detailed elevation profile
- Waypoint list with short statistics for the segments between waypoints
- Color coding of the route according to various parameters
- Analysis of road types, qualities, and maximum speeds
- Detailed table for each route segment
Brief Overview in the Footer🔗
As soon as the route consists of at least a start and an endpoint, the most important statistics of the route are displayed in the footer:
From left to right, you can see:
- Route length
- Elevation gain and the difference between start and end elevation. If the starting point is higher than the endpoint, the difference value is negative.
- Travel time
- Required energy expenditure (total and per 100 km)
- Total and average routing costs (more on this in a separate chapter)
- Benchmark shows the number of calculated route segments and the time required
- Button to show/hide the elevation profile
Distance Icons on the Route Line🔗
Distance markers are displayed at regular intervals along the route line (white oval with black text). These indicate the number of kilometers counted from the start of the route.
Detailed Elevation Profile🔗
By clicking the button in the footer or pressing the E key, the detailed elevation profile of the route can be shown or hidden:
Ascents are shown in various shades of red, descents in shades of green. Flat sections are gray. The legend explains the meaning of the colors:
With the mouse pointer, you can display the elevation and gradient at any point in the elevation profile. The point is also highlighted on the map:
By holding down the mouse button, you can select an area. After releasing the mouse button, the selected area is fitted into the map view. A single click in the elevation profile resets the zoom.
Waypoint List🔗
The waypoint list is located in the right sidebar and can be displayed by clicking the waypoint icon.
Tip
Alternatively, you can use the T key to show/hide the sidebar and Shift+T to switch between different sidebars.
The waypoint list displays the route based on its waypoints.
There is an entry in the waypoint list for every waypoint set in the route.
You can read the distances and elevation gains for each route segment between the waypoints.
Waypoints can also be reordered as desired using the up/down icons or by drag and drop.
Clicking the three dots ⋯ shows more options:
- Link to OpenStreetMap at the waypoint's position
- a
geo:link, which some applications can process - the option to split the route at this point
Color Coding the Route🔗
Instead of the yellow standard line, a route can also be displayed with color coding.
This can be used, for example, to show surface conditions or elevation information.
Color coding can be activated and cycled through using the button on the left side of the map or by pressing the C key. The following modes are activated with each further click:
- Gradient coding
- Elevation coding
- Permitted maximum speed on roads
- Surface/quality
- Routing costs
- (Color coding deactivated again)
Gradient Coding🔗
After the first click, the gradient at each point of the route is displayed in a color spectrum from blue (descent) through green (almost flat) to yellow, orange, and red (ascent). This makes it easy to spot difficult segments:
Elevation Coding🔗
With another click, elevation coding becomes visible. Here, elevation is visualized in the color range green-yellow-orange-red. The lowest segments of a route are shown in green and the highest in red:
Coding by Maximum Speed🔗
The next coding variant shows the permitted maximum speeds of the roads on which the route runs. Again, the gradation green-yellow-orange-red is used. If the maximum speed is not known, the route remains gray.
The assignment (some intermediate steps omitted):
- 30 km/h → Green
- 50 km/h → Yellow
- 80 km/h → Orange
- 100 km/h → Red
Coding of Surface Quality🔗
The surface quality of the planned route can also be displayed with color coding. Again, the familiar scheme green-yellow-orange-red (and gray) is used:
The following logic underlies the coloring:
Each section is assigned a quality value between 0 (very poor) and 1 (very good) based on its OpenStreetMap tags (surface, if applicable tracktype, smoothness).
Assignment of Surface Types to Quality Values🔗
The most important assignments are:
| Surface (surface) | Base value |
|---|---|
| asphalt, concrete | 1.0 |
| paved, chipseal | 0.8 |
| paving_stones, compacted, fine_gravel | 0.7 |
| concrete:lanes, concrete:plates | 0.6 |
| sett, gravel, pebblestone, unpaved | 0.5 |
| ground, earth | 0.3 |
| cobblestone, dirt, grass | 0.2 |
| unhewn_cobblestone, mud, sand | 0.01 |
| unknown | 1.0 (gray) |
Consideration of tracktype (for field and forest paths)🔗
If the section is marked as highway=track, the quality is further adjusted depending on tracktype:
| Grade | Description | Factor | Value if surface unknown |
|---|---|---|---|
grade1 |
very good | unchanged | 0.9 |
grade2 |
good | ×0.9 | 0.7 |
grade3 |
medium | ×0.8 | 0.4 |
grade4 |
poor | ×0.6 | 0.1 |
grade5 |
very poor | ×0.4 | 0.01 |
If no surface is known, a default value is set depending on tracktype (the last column in the table).
Consideration of smoothness🔗
The smoothness of ways can further modify the calculated surface quality value:
| Grade | Factor | Note |
|---|---|---|
excellent |
×1.1 | Value max. 1.0 |
good |
×1.05 | |
intermediate |
×0.9 | |
bad |
×0.7 | |
very_bad |
×0.5 | |
horrible |
×0.4 | |
very_horrible |
×0.2 | |
impassable |
×0.01 |
Color Assignment (Palette)🔗
The calculated values are assigned the following colors:
| Quality value | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 0.0 – 0.45 | Red | Very poor quality |
| 0.45 – 0.9 | Yellow | Medium quality |
| 0.9 – <1.0 | Green | Very good quality |
| 1.0 | Gray | Unknown quality |
Color Coding of Routing Costs🔗
Finally, the route can also be color-coded according to the calculated routing costs for each segment. What is meant by "routing costs" is described in a separate chapter.
Analysis of road types, qualities, and maximum speeds🔗
Bikerouter offers a detailed analysis of the route based on various features such as road/path type, surface condition, smoothness, and permitted maximum speed. This analysis can be accessed via the button in the form of a pie chart in the right sidebar.
Tip
Alternatively, you can use the T key to show/hide the sidebar and Shift+T to switch between different sidebars.
For the entire route, the following statistics are calculated and displayed in tabular form:
- Path Types (highway): Shows how many kilometers are traveled on which road types (e.g., side road, bike path, dirt road). For field and forest paths, the respective
tracktype(e.g., grade1 to grade5) is also indicated. - Surfaces (surface): Indicates how many kilometers are on asphalt, gravel, cobblestone, etc.
- Smoothness (smoothness): Assesses the surface quality according to the OpenStreetMap standard (e.g., excellent, good, bad).
- Maximum Speed (maxspeed): Shows the distribution of permitted maximum speeds along the route.
Each table contains the total distance for each category. Unknown or unassignable sections are listed as "unknown."
Interactive Analysis🔗
The tables are interactive: When hovering the mouse over a table row, the corresponding route segments are highlighted on the map. Clicking on a row permanently highlights the corresponding segments, and clicking again removes the selection.
This makes it easy to quickly see, for example, where the surface condition is poor along the route or where high vehicle speeds are to be expected.
Technical Background🔗
The analysis is based on the detailed path data from the routing calculation. For each route segment, the relevant OpenStreetMap tags are evaluated, and the segment lengths are summed up for each category. For dirt roads (highway=track), the tracktype is also taken into account. The tables are sorted in descending order by segment length, so the most important categories appear at the top.
This evaluation helps to better understand the characteristics of the planned route and, if necessary, to consider alternatives.
Detailed Table for Each Route Segment🔗
The detailed table provides a tabular overview of all segments of the calculated route. It can be displayed via the button with the table icon in the right sidebar.
Tip
Alternatively, you can use the T key to show/hide the sidebar and Shift+T to switch between different sidebars.
The table displays numerous values for each route segment, including:
- Cumulative distance (cum. dist.): The total distance from the starting point to the current segment in meters.
- Distance (dist.): The length of the respective segment in meters.
- Elevation (elev.): The elevation at the segment.
- Cost per kilometer ($/km): The routing cost per kilometer for the segment.
- Elevation cost (elev$): Additional costs caused by ascents.
- Turn cost (turn$): Additional costs caused by changes in direction.
- Node cost (node$): Additional costs due to intersections or nodes.
- Initial cost (initial$): Starting cost for the segment.
- Detailed information about the path segment (WayTags): Data derived from OpenStreetMap about the surface, e.g., type of road, surface material and smoothness, permitted maximum speed, information about one-way streets, and much more.
Example:
From the highlighted row, the following information can be obtained:
- The segment is at kilometer 13.477 of the route.
- The terrain elevation is 117 meters above sea level.
- The segment is 1.042 km long.
- The router has calculated costs of 2,100 for routing over the segment.
- Because the segment contains an ascent, additional costs of 321 are added for overcoming the elevation difference.
- To enter this segment, "turn costs" of 11 are required. This value can be significantly higher, e.g., when turning into another road (90°).
- The additional costs for certain points in the segment are 0. Depending on the profile, values for e.g., traffic lights, railroad crossings, or other obstacles can be shown here.
- The initial costs are 0, which will be the case in most situations. This value is used, for example, for ferries to increase routing costs independently of segment length.
- The detailed information shows the normalized data that the router uses as the basis for calculation:
highway=tertiary surface=asphalt lanes=2 route_bicycle_rcn=yes route_bicycle_lcn=yes
In detail:
highway=tertiary: this is a tertiary road (district road, connecting road)surface=asphalt: the road is asphaltedlanes=2: the road has two lanesroute_bicycle_rcn=yes: the road is part of a regional cycle routeroute_bicycle_lcn=yes: the road is part of a local cycle route
The table can be scrolled both vertically and horizontally. When you hover the mouse over a table row, the corresponding route segment is highlighted on the map. Clicking a table row permanently highlights the segment and centers the map on it. Clicking again removes the selection.
Using the "Synchronize map" button (top right, double arrow icon), you can set whether the map should automatically center on the respective segment when hovering over a table row. This setting is saved in the browser.
In most cases, the full width of the table does not fit in the sidebar. Using the "Enlarge" button, the table can be displayed full-window:
