Bike Hub is a journey planner aimed specifically at cyclists, and as such it makes use of both roads and cycle paths. It is a free application for Android and the iPhone.
Bike Hub uses the OpenCycleMap mapping data (www.opencyclemap.org) and is aware of Sustrans and other designated cycle routes. It is designed to avoid hills where it can, and when it forces a hill into a route estimated journey time is tweaked to allow for the fact that you’ll probably cycle slower up hill and faster down. It’ll find the fastest, quietest and shortest routes as well as what it calls a ‘balanced’ route.
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You can save journeys as favourites, and there’s an option to email routes to other people. Bike Hub will even do ‘leisure routing’, devising a trip for a certain distance or duration from a set starting point.
There’s a useful facility to find bike shops within a six mile radius of your location, and the database seems good. It matched our knowledge of bike shops near our home, even including the small non-chain one we use regularly. To plan a journey to a found bike shop you just tap a button on screen.
The visual instructions are great for anyone with a bike mount, and spoken instructions are delivered through headphones for those with their phone in a pocket.
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