walkit.com

From the blog

We've added a hill profile to our Bristol routes

We've just included a new hill profile graph beneath our Bristol route maps.  This follows its introduction in other walkit.com cities such as Sheffield, Glasgow and London.  Once we've added this to Edinburgh later in the year, all our hillier towns and cities will display this feature.

It allows you to see how steep different parts of your journey will be – particularly useful info if you're carrying a load, pushing a pram or using a wheelchair. Or maybe you've got medical or age-related reasons for wanting to avoid hills. We think bikers should also find this info handy.

Here are some examples:

Ingleside Road to Temple Meads ('direct' option)

Temple Meads to Percival Road ('less busy' option, so favours route over Brandon Hill = slower and hillier, but 'nicer'…?)

Temple Meads to Percival Road ('direct' option, avoids Brandon Hill and keeps to roads = quicker, less up and down, but less 'nice'…?)

Ingleside Road to Percival Road ('less busy' option)

By default, the graph's y axis measures 0 to 250m above sea level, and the x axis 0 to 6,000m of walk length. For route lengths of under 6km the graph line will stop short of the end of the right-hand edge of the chart area (i.e. we don't stretch to fit) – we think this allows you to make more meaningful comparisons between the hilliness of each route (see first three images above) .

However for practical reasons, for routes over 6km, we compress the whole distance into the chart area – so you might end up with an even craggier graph line (see fourth image).  But don't worry, you won't need crampons.

Please note that we take account of the impact inclines have on walking speed when generating a route – so your journey times and Calories burns will change accordingly.

Please let us know what you think, and/or comment below.