Mapping for cycle touring in Britain; Past, present, and a possible future

The lack hitherto of studies of cycle-touring mapping in Britain is noted, and some basic attributes of cycle touring including speed, daily distance, gradients and wind, are described. Essential and desirable qualities for a cycle-touring map are enumerated, including the need to depict all rural routs available to cyclists; it is concluded that the optimum scale is in the range of 1:100000-1:126720, and that relief should be shown by contours at an interval not greater than 30 metres. National mapping series in the optimum scale range which were published after 1945 are then reviewed, and reasons suggested as to why none has been kept in print. The mapping available for cycle touring in Britain in 2001 is critically described: it is noted that there is no national coverage in the optimum scale range; that although the Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:50000 Landranger series contains all the necessary information, it is too bulky to be suitable: and that most of the other maps published in the optimum scale have inadequate relief information and all offer very limited geographical cover. The potential competition for the OS 1:50000 from a national map series in the optimum scale range is acknowledged, and an outline specification for a 1:125000 series is described, which seeks to minimize that competition whilst providing all the necessary information for cycle touring.