...and Where's the Path?

The satellite images on both Bikehike and WTP show a "Development purposes only" watermark. I've searched tinternet and it looks as though google maps ain't free any more, but when I look in Google Maps the pricing only seems to apply to the developer. No mention is made of the user (me).

It's happened to a few sites.

It's a change in Google's map policy, from July anyone using the Google Maps API needs a key. It's free for up to 25,000 requests per day but Google charge after that point. It could be that BikeHike don't have a key or the key is for an older version of the API that doesn't have this limit.

Ah! So it's not me that has to stump up the cash, but the developer. That's OK then, but I can see the cost being passed on to the user eventually, especially for services that have been free to use up until now.

frogatthefarriers wrote:Ah! So it's not me that has to stump up the cash, but the developer. That's OK then, but I can see the cost being passed on to the user eventually, especially for services that have been free to use up until now.

I've not looked any further in to it so don't know if the 25,000 is site/key sessions or tile requests to Google. If the latter then that's going to get used up very quickly. Not looked at what the cost is beyond the free allowance. To get a key the developer has to provide billing information for the possibility that they use too much. BikeHike would also occasionally get hit by the OS daily limit hence why it was better to use it in the morning

It won't be long until some smart developer works out a way to cache the tiles and give you those instead of requesting new ones. Not trying to give anyone ideas...

Greetz

S.

Golden Cheetah also affected. I expect the OS / free to use nature of this software makes it impossible for the developers to pay for mapping. Perhaps the next version will use a different provider.

The download tool for my Holux GPS unit also suffers from this - could also just be that the software for this and Bikehike haven't been updated for a long time, have lagged behind the ever-advancing versions of the Google maps API, and have effectively become deprecated.

P.S. I've just checked a Google maps driven site that I made a while ago, and it's exhibiting the same symptoms, so it is just an out of date thing.

Scattamah wrote:It won't be long until some smart developer works out a way to cache the tiles and give you those instead of requesting new ones. Not trying to give anyone ideas...

Sadly if it was only 25,000 tile requests a day then it would take a hell of an amount of time to get any decent baseline cache in place. =/

Given you could cache around 700K tiles per month, it wouldn't take too long to get the UK covered. It's not exactly a big place.

Greetz

S.

That's fine for us, but we're most definitely not the only people using it.

(Not to mention when we want to use it for Spain, Italy, France etc)

Oh bugger.
I find Bike hike really useful. Having the split screen is great.
Will it be resolved? Is there a work around?

Typical Google - annoyingly they won't allow you to switch to OSM either (which is run by Microsoft....) hopefully Bikehike can use Bing maps??

So which planning websites (rather than downloadable software) can I use to plan a route?

I want to be able to match OS/normal maps with sat maps, trying to make a route to ride tonight in suitably countryish areas that I can jump in for a quick bivy

benp1 wrote:So which planning websites (rather than downloadable software) can I use to plan a route?

I want to be able to match OS/normal maps with sat maps, trying to make a route to ride tonight in suitably countryish areas that I can jump in for a quick bivy

had this bookmarked for a while but not had the need to use it till now, i'm sure someone else will have more knowledge.....
https://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm

I can't see how you can plot a route on that though...

benp1 wrote:I can't see how you can plot a route on that though...

Click on the map icon with the red and green pins. I need to figure it out better myself.

It's sort of fixed opens up with osm cycle map and ordance survey ,just can't flip to satalite image

This is on the homepage:

Sept 2018: Google Usage Changes
As you may be aware, Google has changed its usage model and is now charging for its services (with a free USD200 credit per month). This site generates enough traffic that the costs would be significant and not sustainable. Therefore, I'm planning to move to predominantly using OSM maps.
At the moment there's a temporary fix to default to OSM maps - more changes to come.

Good, its a good site so glad to see there is a work around.

I've been using gpxeditor.co.uk recently. It has its drawbacks like all the other sites I've used, but it's pretty good. OS maps and does routing. Can create/upload multiple segments which is useful for e.g. pinching bits and pieces from different routes and sticking them together. The interface is a little clunky though.

Looks like Trackleaders has the Google Maps issue now too.