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Some background:
I am taking PE on a motorcycle trip, where my phone is mounted on the handlebars of the bike. Because of various elements, such as the reflection on the screen, the vibration of the bike, etc. I find it hard to check the b-roads while riding. Increasing the zoom level prevents me from seeing where I am going, I would much rather have the overview of the area. Most of the time I know where I am more or less going, so I do not plan a route (which is well visible). Also when riding unfamiliar areas I find a waypoint pulls me towards my destination while giving me the freedom to choose my own roads, so this is preferred to a route/turn-by-turn. In order to use this freestyle way of navigating, it would be very helpful to be able to see at a glance whether some road has an intersection further, or whether it bends off elsewhere.Request:
The feature request is therefore to have a Map Style available that is high in contrast between road and land, uses thick lines also for minor roads, and color differentiates between the different road types. The thick lines should also be still prominent when reasonably zoomed-out on the map.I realise that there is a lot of relativity in this request; and may raise questions as: how fat should the lines be? How much zoomed out is reasonable? Is that speed dependent? And then there is a possible sufficient compromise; which is that of just changing the color scheme to something in higher contrast – possibly much easier to implement and may be enough in practice…
I have done several thousand miles now using PE on my motorcycle. To my mind the most useful change would be increased visibility for the present position icon, perhaps by size/colour, so that a quick glance is all that is required rather than the present close scrutiny
Incidentally, PE on an iPad works very well in the mapcase of a tankbag. The expanded view ahead is just what the doctor ordered, the capacitive capability of the screen is retained and it takes several hours on the hottest of days before the device complains (and temporarily shuts down)
From the navigation apps out there, I have compared Pocket Earth against Apple Maps, Google Maps, Navfree and Sygic. From these, Pocket Earth has the best visibility (see picture attached). I took the app out for a ride today again, and used a somewhat more zoomed in view. In practice the b-roads are never dead ends; I have taken comfort in not seeing where the road connects back to another road – as long as I have north up I know where I am going! With a slightly more zoomed in view the map is in practice sufficiently readable on the bike – consider the feature request withdrawn (although it would still be a cool option to have a high-contrast Map Style).
I did not have trouble locating my present position on screen, probably because on an iphone you have a lot less screen area to scan than on an ipad.
Just as a temporary workaround, another thread suggested using the iPad’s (and maybe the iPhone’s) Settings: General > Accesibility > Invert Colors as a way to blast the look of PE. (I think this was in relation to a night-time view.) Not the ideal solution, but might be worth a look!
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