Our heatmap guides you to the best cycling routes

NodeMapp.com is the starting point for hundreds of thousands of cyclists each year. Thousands of cycling routes are created, downloaded, and followed daily via our website and app. This data provides us with valuable insights into the most popular cycling routes. We are happy to share this information with our users through a heatmap: a map that clearly shows which routes are the most popular in each region. This makes it even easier to plan the best cycling trips in new areas.

How can you use the heatmap?

The heatmap is available to all our Premium users. You can activate it in the route planner on our website and in our app. Below, we explain step by step how to activate and interpret the heatmaps.

Heatmap on our website

Open our route planner. Open the Layers icon at the top right of the route planner:

In the menu that appears, make the heatmap visible by clicking on the Visibility button. When the heatmap is visible, you can click on the Color palette to choose a desired color for the heatmap:

Heatmap in our app

In the app, you can activate the heatmap by opening the menu (three dots at the top right) in the route planner. Choose Heatmap there. Then, you will get a popup where you can enable or disable the heatmap and choose the desired color.

How do I interpret the heatmap?

After activating the heatmap, go to the region where you want to plan a cycling route. The brighter a route appears, the more popular it is among cyclists. Also note that each route has a number between 0 and 100. The higher the number, the more popular the route is among cyclists. This makes it even easier to get an idea of where the most frequently used cycling routes are.

The heatmap is dynamic: when you zoom in on a region, the heatmap automatically calculates the most popular routes within that area and compares them with each other. This means that a score of 100 in region A does not necessarily mean the same as a score of 100 in region B. The scores you see only compare routes within the area you are zoomed in on. For example, if you zoom in on a popular tourist region, a route with a score of 100 has likely been used much more frequently by cyclists than a route with the same score in a less touristy area. However, this method always helps you find the most-used routes in a specific region.

Are the most popular routes always the most beautiful?

The most popular routes in a region are often the most interesting, but that is not always because they are the most beautiful routes. A higher score does, of course, significantly increase the chance of a beautiful and pleasant route. However, sometimes a route is popular because it is an important connection between two interesting areas, and it might not be the most beautiful option nearby. A route can also have a low score in some situations because it has only recently been added to the cycling network. Our heatmap is updated every month. This update is always based on data from the past year. A beautiful route that was added last month has not yet had much time to prove itself but will certainly light up over time.

The heatmap is a very handy tool to maximize the chances of planning a great cycling route.