The best route planner for runners, built around runner happiness

Finding a route of the right length is easy. Finding a route that makes you happy is the real art. So over the past few weeks, we rebuilt our route planner around that one question. We'll say it out loud: this is the best route planner for runners in the world.

In short:

• Runner happiness: every route gets a score for how good it is to run.
• Smarter suggestions: your preferences really count.
• Faster: suggestions are ready quickly, wherever you run.
• Lit paths: you see what's lit, and what the map doesn't know.
• Along the way: water, restrooms, and stoplights on the map.
• A redesigned planner: calmer, on phone and desktop.
• Better saved routes: your routes on the map and a route page with character.
• How many burgers did you run off?: your calories, in terms that make sense.

Runner happiness for every route

Every route now gets a percentage: runner happiness. The score tells you how good a route is to run, from 0 to 100%. Nature counts the most, followed by car-free paths, quiet roads, and few stoplights. A smooth line with no out-and-back on the same road counts too, and so does hitting your distance.

Try it yourself. Switch between three suggestions below and see what changes:

Suggestion 195%Suggestion 288%Suggestion 385%

95% runner happiness. A loop through the park and along the water.

Runner happiness

95%

Path

88%

Unpaved

34%

Through green

81%

Along water

62%

Lit

54%

Stoplights

0

Curious how a route scores? In the legend, click runner happiness to see how many points each part earns. Click a bar, and that part of the route lights up on the map.

Smarter suggestions

The planner no longer picks the first loop that fits. It picks the loop that suits you best. Every candidate is measured the same way. If you deliberately turn something on, like mostly paths, green space, or prefer quiet roads, that counts the most. If there isn't much of what you're looking for nearby, the planner says so honestly and gives you the closest match.

Routes other runners liked can also come back as a suggestion, fitted to your starting point. That way, you benefit from what runners nearby already discovered, without us showing anyone's starting point or name.

Faster, on every screen

A suggestion should be there before you think about it. That's why route calculation now runs on our own servers, with map data for the whole world. There's less waiting on others, and it works as well in Utrecht as it does in Tokyo. Suggestions are prepared in the background, so the next route is ready quickly.

Lit paths

Do you often run in the dark? The planner now shows how much of each route is lit. We're honest about what we don't know: you see which part is lit, which part isn't, and which part the map doesn't know about. We never count unknown as lit.

Choose Prefer lit in the route preferences, and the planner looks for roads and paths with street lighting. We can't tell whether the lights are actually on that night, so when in doubt, bring a headlamp.

What you find along the way

Under Map layers, you decide what you see: drinking water, restrooms, and stoplights, each with the choice of everything, on your route only, or nothing. Stoplights also appear in the legend, so you know how often you might have to stop. You can turn on distance markers there too. Want to see where people run nearby? Turn on Community routes.

A planner that just works

We went through every detail of the planner. On your phone, the big sheet is gone: you now see the map, with calm, separate buttons around it. On top are your runner happiness and your distance, time, and calories, with the buttons to generate, draw, and save below. Once your route is there, the starting point collapses to give the map more room.

You can always draw your own route, even next to a suggestion. Move a point with your finger, and it stays just above your fingertip, so you can see where it lands. On desktop, everything sits in one calm panel next to the map, which you can collapse.

Saved routes worth showing off

Your saved routes are now on the map. Turn on My routes in Map layers to see at a glance where you've already run, with your runner happiness.

The route page is new too. Every route automatically gets a recognizable title, based on places along the entire route and not just your starting point. The description tells you which parks and neighborhoods you run through. Click a park or percentage, and the map goes there. Share with a custom preview card, and kilometers or miles switch everywhere.

How many burgers did you run off?

Every route shows an estimate of your calories, based on your weight, pace, elevation gain, and surface. But what does 530 calories actually mean? Now you can convert them. Tap your calories and choose what you want to see: beer, craft beer, wine, soda, burgers, pizza slices, donuts, or chocolate bars.

1.8burgers

3.8cans of soda

5.0glasses of beer

5.9glasses of wine

The button then shows the number with an icon, to one decimal place. Have an account? We save your choice in your profile, next to your weight, so you see your favorite everywhere. Prefer plain calories? They're on by default.

What do you think?

We keep improving the planner, and your feedback helps. Did you run a great route, or is something missing? Let us know below.