Contour lined A to Z?

EKE_38BPM

Following on from my post on Best route St. Pauls to CS3? in which I said that the tfl cycle maps would be better if the maps had contour lines so that you could see how hilly the routes is and, if necessary, detour around the hill.

Does anyone know of any A to Z type maps of London with contour lines?

sketchley

If you use Mapmyride's web site it includes elevation information.

EKE_38BPM

Sketchley wrote:

If you use Mapmyride's web site it includes elevation information.

Spot heights or contour lines?

sketchley

No contour line, but there are diffetrent map types including "Terrain" however down at bottom there is a "Elavation" button click it and it will show the vertical profile of the route you have put in, you can then adjust the route accordingly.

Take a look it's free to browse

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/create/

_Brun_

The terrain map does show contours.

deptfordmarmoset

The open streets cycle map is not that good for contours but if you get it to route find for you ( http://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/451107/ - St Pauls to CS3) it does give you a profile. Which is not quite what you asked for but it's a start.

sketchley

_Brun_ wrote:

The terrain map does show contours.

Yes but not contour lines, which was the question.

EKE_38BPM

Many sites give you the option of plotting a route and then getting the elevation profile, but I'm after a map (paper or online) that shows the contour lines so that you can, for example, see if there is a hill on your route that is easily detour-aroundable, rather than plotting it on the map, seeing that there is a hill on the profile, plotting another route, looking at the profile etc.

Contour lines would speed the process up considerably if you know how to read maps well (like wot I can).

sketchley

Try this

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

In top right corner click + then click "Cycle Map" contour on that.

Chris

_Brun_

Sketchley wrote:

_Brun_ wrote:

The terrain map does show contours.

Yes but not contour lines, which was the question.

Contours/contour lines, same thing. I can quite clearly see them, there's a 100m one running across Hampstead Heath, and I'm presuming the adjacent ones are at 10m increments.

sketchley

_Brun_ wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

_Brun_ wrote:

The terrain map does show contours.

Yes but not contour lines, which was the question.

Contours/contour lines, same thing. I can quite clearly see them, there's a 100m one running across Hampstead Heath, and I'm presuming the adjacent ones are at 10m increments.

Appologies you're right, didn't spot them just the shading......

EKE_38BPM

_Brun_ wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

_Brun_ wrote:

The terrain map does show contours.

Yes but not contour lines, which was the question.

Contours/contour lines, same thing. I can quite clearly see them, there's a 100m one running across Hampstead Heath, and I'm presuming the adjacent ones are at 10m increments.

Oooh, I shall investigate further. Damn this sudden influx of work, don't they know I've got foruming to do!?!

Kieran_Burns

Am I being thick here? OS maps?

http://explore.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/

cambs

If you go to the maps section of Bing, you can choose to use OS maps at a certain zoom level.

they're a bit hard to see on the urban areas though.

davmaggs

I asked a similar question a while back and got some helpful links:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... ht=contour

rolf_f

Now I'm confused! Why would you want a contour map to help you detour around hills? Surely you would use the contour map to know the route to go straight up them

Now pull yourself togethre and think what would happen if the organisers of the TdF took the same approach as you.......

EKE_38BPM

Rolf F wrote:

Now I'm confused! Why would you want a contour map to help you detour around hills? Surely you would use the contour map to know the route to go straight up them

Now pull yourself togethre and think what would happen if the organisers of the TdF took the same approach as you.......

Did I say detour around hills? I meant I wanted a way to find the most hills on my way to work. Obviously, anything else is just, well, pants.
The most climbs/distance travelled whilst on the way to work is what all us commuters want. I may even leave home later so that I'm working to a tighter schedule and have to climb faster.

Nik Cube

thats better

EKE_38BPM

Sketchley wrote:

Try this

http://www.openstreetmap.org/

In top right corner click + then click "Cycle Map" contour on that.

Chris

Oooh, I like that. It does what I ask, but [nit picking]there is more info on there than I would wish.
Having recycling centres, churches, pubs, bike shops, cafes etc lead to a cluttered map so the contours are harder to spot. [/nit picking]

In an ideal world, the user would be able to increase the thickness of the contour lines (so they are more visible) and turn down some of the detail of the map (A road user doesn't really need to know the shape of buildings in an urban environment).

Maybe editing this map for my purposes could be my introduction to the world of wiki like SCR was my introduction to the world of online forums?

deptfordmarmoset

The cheapest way of mapping scalable Ordnance Survey routes that I've found is by using 1:25,000 maps with Quo.V2 ( mapyx.com ). While the mapping software is free, you have to buy the OS maps (about £2 a tile). You can, of course, download all the free open source stuff, plot you own routes, get elevation details, export to gpx devices or to google earth, etc, all for free, but the OS Explorer maps are perfect for my use and the contour lines are much easier to see than on the Open Source maps.

Here's a page I've just stuck online - a while ago I was wandering around Crystal Palace just before the college road thread appeared. I'd noticed a little cyclable side route running up the east side of the hill and wondered how steep that route would be. So I did this (sorry it's a bit big.)

jimmypippa

Where's The Path is pretty goood, it uses OS and google maps and out of copyright OS maps as well.

EDIT:
here's the help page