[talk-au] UK gov wastes millions on redundant cycle route planner

John Smith deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com
Tue Apr 13 02:02:37 BST 2010


"On his personal website Mr Taylor explains how a free online cycle
route planner has been available in Cambridge since the Cambridge
Cycling Campaign Journey Planner was launched in 2006. This system
then mutated into CycleStreets, a nationwide project, which provides
users with suggestions for cycle friendly routes and allows them to
choose for either an "unhurried" or "quick" ride. The cost of this
scheme, in terms of central government funding, was a few thousand
pounds (around £5,000 to £6,000)."

"In 2009, the Department of Transport launched a service via its
transportdirect.info website, enabling people to find cycle friendly
routes in eighteen specific areas of the UK. The government website
only covers a small handful of selected locations, while CycleStreets
covers the whole of the UK, subject to restrictions set by the quality
of Open Street Map data for a given area. CycleStreets provides
additional function not available through the official option,
including integration with a national photomap which allows people to
see photos taken along the route. The site also integrates with Google
Earth."

"The cost of work on the government site to date, according to a
freedom of information request submitted via the whatdotheyknow
website is £2,383,739, with plans currently under way to spend a
further £400,000 on adapting what has been produced to provide a route
planner for a Cycling for Schools programme."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/cycle_route_planner/




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