OT: Route drawing websites for cars, like Gmap Pedometer and Mapometer for runners/cyclists

Feb 07, 2026 Last reply: 5 months ago 3 Replies

Can anyone recommend a good site for drawing a route *for a car* on a map by clicking on key points along the way, so a route follows the curves of roads between the points that I click?



GMap and Mapometer are great for ordinary roads, as long as you take precautions to click points sufficiently closely spaced that the algorithm doesn't go off-road onto cycle tracks. But they have a big restriction: they will not allow a route to be drawn on roads that cyclists and runners are not allowed to use, such as motorways.



There are times when it is useful to be able to draw a map that uses motorways, to generate a GPX file.



I'm not talking about satnav which chooses the best route between start and end points. I'm talking about being able to draw the route myself, taking whatever turnings I choose.



OK, I could do it on Mapometer by turning off "follow roads" when I get to a motorway and drawing straight line segments, but that is tedious.



There are many sites which are aimed at runners and cyclists but I haven't yet found a site which forces the route to use roads that are accessible by car (ignoring cycle tracks etc), and which includes motorways and other roads that cyclists are banned from.


Can't you use GoogleMaps, which follows roads, and allows you to drag one of its routes to one you prefer? You can't make a gpx file from it, but you can send a link to your smartphone to show the route on it. You can then enlarge and drag it to show fine details. Unfortunately it's not OS Explorer mapping.

Since posting my question I discovered Maps.ie which uses Google or OSM maps as its base, can follow all types of road including motorways, and can generate GPX files. The only restriction is that you cannot save and resume a route as you are gradually adding it (in the way that you would save and continue a word processing file etc).

Unfortunately I don't live in Ireland.

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