A new route library — aren't there quite enough of those already? There are, but there were quite enough map and route planning apps too back when Trailmap was born. The starting point for a new route library is the same as it was for Trailmap: there is a gap in what the market currently offers, and to my mind it is worth filling.

Trailmap's recent user survey showed clearly that users are very interested in shared routes. Sharing routes is already possible in the app, and it is a much-used feature (over 7000 shared routes!), but routes can only be shared through links directly to other users or by passing them around on social media — so it is not yet possible to see all of Trailmap's public routes gathered in one place.

The goals

The basic idea of the route library is simple: gather the best routes from various sources into a collection that is easy to browse, offer enough information to assess the routes, and make using them easy.

The data for the routes will cover at least the following sources:

• Trails from the OSM trail map: at a quick glance, all the MTB-classified trails in Finland; easy to see where there are lots of trails and where there are few or none
• OSM routes: besides map data, OSM also offers routes; the quality is variable, but in places it offers ideas for areas where no other routes are available
• LIPAS routes: LIPAS is a national database of sports facilities and routes maintained by the University of Jyväskylä; it has the official routes maintained by municipalities and tourism operators
• Trailmap routes: Trailmap's users have already planned a staggering number of routes, well over 44 000, of which more than 7000 are public — and the number keeps growing. The plan is to publish the best routes from that pool in the route library. Note: the creators of the routes decide their visibility themselves; nothing is published automatically.
• Routes from websites and other sources: descriptions, videos, blogs and so on — you can find these with Google already now, but the aim of the new route library is to make it easier to sift the gems out of the mixed bag

The route library makes using routes easy:

1. A rich selection of different route options on the map: official routes as well as event and user routes
2. An easy way to use the routes: GPX, navigation, editing
3. Enough information about the routes to make assessing their fit for your own use quick and easy

You would think the goals above were straightforward enough that someone would already have built a route library that follows them... We will come back to that in the next section.

The new route library will be developed the same way as the Trailmap app: briskly and actively, based on my own riding & the experience from it, and strongly on user feedback.

The route library will be its own website, but connected to the Trailmap app in such a way that using the two together is easy. A separate site allows faster development than just making this a feature inside the Trailmap app — that way user feedback can be acted on at best within the same day.

What is out there now

There are already many kinds of route libraries on the market, so creating a new one started by studying carefully the strengths and weaknesses of the existing ones. Below is a summary of my own observations; the views of the readers of this post are valuable: the "Trailmap Suomi" Facebook group or a direct email to yours truly are both working channels for comments.

The Luontoon.fi service

Metsähallitus's traditional Luontoon service was recently revamped with a rather substantial development budget of nearly 3 million euros! Development money has also been directed at overhauling the LIPAS database and at supporting content production.

The service offers both the routes of the national LIPAS database and Metsähallitus's own data, which is closed at least for now (a rather odd choice in this open data era). The interface is stripped-down simple: a base map, some filters and routes both on the map and as a list in a sidebar. Basic information is offered for the routes selected on the map.

VERDICT: The service's premise is stripped-down, easy use. That is probably an apt choice for the service's traditional users, hikers and walkers, who mostly move about in nature along waymarked routes from one rest spot to the next.

For a cyclist, and a mountain biker in particular, the offering is thin: no possibility to download GPX tracks, the route information is quite thin and without a proper trail map you cannot really assess them. Nor does the service offer an easy way to edit routes for your own needs, and that does not seem to be part of the service's philosophy anyway ("routes are used as they are").

There is certainly a need for a service like this — "all kinds of official routes in an easy form for the whole nation" — but from that starting point it is hard to meet the needs of a more demanding target group, people who ride bikes.

The Bikeland.fi service

The Cycling Tourism Centre's website has also recently been revamped, roughly in step with the Luontoon service's overhaul. The aim is to offer Finland's official cycling routes from one place — largely the same as the Luontoon service, then, but the idea is to be more targeted at the cyclist's needs where possible.

To my mind there is absolutely a need for an institution like this in Finland — there is so much to gain from better support for the various regional cycling tourism projects and opportunities. Unfortunately the Cycling Tourism Centre's practical problem is very thin funding that varies from year to year.

VERDICT: The service's overhaul is still under way and it is missing a lot of route data, LIPAS and the like, that used to be there. So the service is still hard to assess. Its development depends both on funding for its own development and on the ability of municipalities to produce updated content into the LIPAS database — and there are significant problems with both.

Tourism operators' websites

There is no shortage of regional tourism operators' websites in Finland, and they are developed with both continuous and project funding. Some of them are of decent quality, e.g. the cycling pages of the various regions of Lapland, VisitKarelia, the city of Vaasa's site and so on, which besides the basic route information also carry plenty of useful knowledge about the routes: route descriptions, pictures, videos, GPX files and so on.

VERDICT: There is plenty of usable information on these sites, but their problem is the same as with all scattered websites: finding and browsing these sites by googling is hard, and you have to read a lot of them to get a comprehensive picture of all the official routes on offer in Finland. The routes are mostly developed with so-called project money, which is both a blessing and a curse: without it the routes would not come about, but on the other hand the nature of project money is "done in one go, as a single project", which does not really work in today's (digital) world.

The Jalki.fi service

Jalki.fi has been a pioneer in Finland, offering the first more substantial route library above all for cyclists. The content is user-produced and thus an important alternative to the official routes produced by the public organisations mentioned above.

The site has an estimated 3000 or so routes uploaded by users, for mountain biking, gravel and road cycling alike. Some of the routes are probably plans; a large share, as the site's name suggests, are "tracks", i.e. recordings of rides ridden with varying quality.

Browsing happens largely through various lists: places, newest and so on. Map search is also partly possible, but it is slow and only shows a small part of the routes on the map at a time.

VERDICT: The service has done commendable pioneering work and passed ready-made tracks, i.e. GPX files, between enthusiasts. Its selection is clearly the widest collection of Finnish cycling tracks. Development work quietened down after the start, though, and appears to have stopped entirely at the end of 2022, after which updates to the site's changelog and social media channels have ceased completely.

Various apps

Almost all the significant route planning apps offer user-planned routes in some form as well. Or else AI-generated routes of their own. These sources will continue to be usable for hunting down routes, especially when the aim is to find every possible route on offer somewhere.

Not one app, however, offers a comprehensive selection of both official waymarked routes and user-planned routes. And on average, per app, the supply of routes in Finland is modest enough that any single app is hard to use as your only source.

Summary

The current services and sites offer plenty of valuable information and routes, but their fragmentation, limited coverage or inadequate tools make getting an overall picture difficult. The aim of the new route library is to combine these pieces: official and unofficial routes, a comprehensive base map and an easy way to use and edit routes.