Map printing for the confused

August 7, 2015 10:10 PM

I am leaving tomorrow on my first short bike tour (thanks to you all!) and was just going to print out some maps before going to bed, and then got caught in a 2 hour rabbit hole of inefficacy. Halp please!

I thought I'd easily be able to print turn-by-turn maps for the trickier in-city directions (don't think I'll need that level of detail for long stretches of minor highways), but over the last couple hours of frustration I can't successfully do this on Strava, MapMyRide, or even Google Maps, which I swear used to default to this when printing! They all only print a small version of the entire, 4 day route, which is useless to me.

Is there a way I can do this? The best I've figured out is manually taking screen shots and pasting them into a Word doc which seems insane and ridiculous.

The cue sheet also seems pretty useless - what if I take one wrong turn and can't find my way back to my next cue? Phone is unlikely to have batteries the whole way... Please advise!

Thanks so much,

posted by latkes to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: If you think your phone will die, you may want to invest in a portable power bank. (Here's one example, but there are tons of brands, shapes and sizes.) Looking at a map on a bike definitely doesn't seem any easier than using a GPS device like your phone.

If your heart is set on printed maps, what about AAA TripTiks? There are several different print options available when you select to print, but it prints turn-by-turn maps zoomed in on different portions of the trip if you do the default full route "AAA Exclusive TripTik" option.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:54 PM on August 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Are you still planning an exhibition to Ukiah?

http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/general-news/20150806/mendocino-county-air-quality-affected-by-area-fires

The air over Ukiah was noticeably hazy Thursday, prompting the Mendocino County Air Quality Management District to issue another air quality advisory for the entire county.

Fires burning regionally, specifically the Rocky Fire in Lake County, continue to affect the air quality locally, said the MCAQMD, and until that fire is out, Mendocino County will continue to suffer from poor air conditions.
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:41 PM on August 7, 2015

Seconding that Google Maps should give you turn-by-turn mini-maps. I can't guess why it's not working for you. Maybe turn off bike mode and try car mode???

For the future try RideWithGPS.com. it's a terrific route planning and mapping tool--it's great even without a GPS device. But you probably won't master it by tomorrow. It would print the maps you want.
posted by JimN2TAW at 1:26 AM on August 8, 2015

Tried Bike Route Toaster ?
posted by lmfsilva at 3:06 AM on August 8, 2015

You could head to the library and photocopy the trickier in-city parts off physical maps, perhaps.
posted by aniola at 8:56 AM on August 8, 2015

As far as I can tell, Google Maps' latest improvement "improved" the turn-by-turn mini-maps out of existence. They were extremely useful and convenient and I miss them several times a month.

I can think of two options for print: (Option 1) click on route Details, then on the drop-down Print menu choose Print Including Maps. It gives you large maps and directions, but there's no way to do mini-maps. (Option 2) is to focus the Google Map to show you the trickier in-city area, click on Print Screen, and paste this into a Word document (then Crop to prettify). (If someone knows of a not-clunky way to do mini-maps like Google used to have, please let me know.)
posted by bentley at 9:46 AM on August 8, 2015

Also, about cue sheets: I walk a lot around town, and if it's a new route from A to B or going from A to C, my cue sheets often include not only turns, but also other indicators, such as roundabouts, under/overpasses, train/metro crossings,and where not to turn - streets have name plaques in Porto, north of here, one crossing they have, the next crossing may not, which kind of helps reducing mistakes and backtracking. This was the first page of my Friday walk cue.

You should also do a mental/visual run of the route (particularly changes in direction) using google street view: while some things may have changed, they should still be easily recognizable.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:32 PM on August 8, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks folks! I ended up buying that battery pack thing suggested above, and in the end didn't need it. I had a chance to charge the phone most days around lunch time while I ate, and also at camp sites while I slept, so never ran out even though I was listening to audio books and podcasts for much of the trip.

Even the maps on my phone weren't anywhere near as necessary as I had worried they would be. There'd be a little stretch where I had to remember 3 or 4 turns or landmarks, and then I'd mostly sit on one long stretch of road for an hour or more, when I didn't have to worry about maps at all.

I was really glad I had askme to turn to at the 11th hour of anxiety though, and glad I got the battery pack for just in case.
posted by latkes at 5:40 PM on August 16, 2015