Route plotting"

Korhan 1 month ago

The "follow roads" feature in the route creation section on the Garmin Connect website has been removed. This is a huge mistake, and the once excellent "route plotting" feature has become terrible.

Top Replies

Bitti 30 days ago in reply to Korhan +2 verified

To me it sounds like they've just renamed "follow roads" to "most direct / minimise distance" to emphasize the fact that it chooses the shortest route using roads (unlike most popular, which favours popular…
e7andy 1 month ago +1

It will always follow roads unless you select "Freehand".
e7andy 29 days ago in reply to Korhan +1

The dirt roads are probably not that popular for road cycling. You can try making it use those roads by putting the points closer or right on the road.

All Replies

0 e7andy 1 month ago

It will always follow roads unless you select "Freehand".

0 Korhan 1 month ago in reply to e7andy

There are three options;
"Most Popular
Routes others use most",

"Most Direct
"Minimise distance"

"Freehand
"Draw your own route".

Previously, there were the following options:

"Most Popular"
Routes most used by others,

"Follow the roads"

"Freehand drawing"
"Draw your own route".

With the "Most Popular" option, there is no problem if "follow roads" works, even if they haven't been used before.

+1 Bitti 30 days ago in reply to Korhan

To me it sounds like they've just renamed "follow roads" to "most direct / minimise distance" to emphasize the fact that it chooses the shortest route using roads (unlike most popular, which favours popular routes).

0 Korhan 29 days ago in reply to Bitti

I found that it follows roads in both options (Most Popular and Most Direct). However, it uses a different method for each. When the "Most Direct" option is selected, shorter "dirt roads" become available for "road cycling".

0 e7andy 29 days ago in reply to Korhan

The dirt roads are probably not that popular for road cycling. You can try making it use those roads by putting the points closer or right on the road.

0 Korhan 29 days ago in reply to e7andy

I actually don't want to do this, but that's how the program works. Actually, the program needs to use paved roads for "road bike".

0 e7andy 29 days ago in reply to Korhan

Nahh, lots of dirt roads works great with a road bike. As long as they are hard enough and without gravel. I'm stuck on 25 mm tires since my fork can't take any wider. Otherwise I would go to 28 or 30 mm. Where I ride there are lots of hard dirt roads between nice paved roads so I use them to find the best course for the day.

Here is where Strava routing is a lot better. You can see what type of road it is routing you on so you can make it chose a different road if you just want fast paved roads or if you can accept some unknown roads or shorter dirt roads.
The popularity of each road is also displayed in a great way so you can find roads that will work for a road bike but the routing isn't using it. Garmin's heatmap is not good and easy to see and if you zoom in it disappears.

0 Korhan 27 days ago in reply to e7andy

Actually, that's not a problem for me because I have a Gravel bike, and I mostly use that. I generally use mixed routes. I just wanted to explain how the program works.