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Naviki helps you find pleasant, safe routes when you use you bike for transportation

Standard maps and navigation software can show us how to get from point A to point B. But these applications usually don’t tell us which roads are busy or lack a shoulder, or which intersections we should try to avoid.

Especially when we’re traveling with young or inexperienced riders, safety and comfort are primary concerns. And when we’re out on a social ride, we’ll want to pedal along a quiet street or paved trail and have a conversation, instead of hugging a shoulder on a busy road.

We went on a quest to locate a good way to find and share safe, convenient commuting routes. Routes that take us from one city to another in Washington County (to work, to school, shopping…), and routes that we can use if we want to leave our cars at home and pedal to our favorite paved trails and mountain bike trails right from our doorstep. Eventually, we stumbled across Naviki. Naviki is primarily designed to navigate users along designated bike routes and streets with low speed-limits, but it can also calculate routes for road rides, for e-bike rides, or for convenient and fast commutes.

HOW TO USE NAVIKI

· Naviki can be downloaded for free on your Android or iPhone.

· Basic functions are free and don’t require sign-up (this includes ‘everyday’ route planning, map access).

· You can create a free account to start recording and saving routes.

· The free, basic function doesn’t allow for specific routing in the app, but you can log into the web interface on www.naviki.org and pre-plan routes for specific purposes.

· Audio turn-by-turn navigation, leisure routing, e-bike routing, offline maps, and other extras can be unlocked by making a one-time purchase (between $2 and $5 each).


Naviki Pros

Naviki Cons

  • Specifically designed to serve users who bike for transportation
  • Reliably calculates safe, pleasant routes
  • Allows for customizing routes
  • Turn-by-turn audio navigation
  • Leisure, everyday, fast, and e-bike routing
  • Can be connected to fitness devices
  • Has a contest feature that can be used by businesses and communities to encourage bicycling
  • Address search function doesn’t always find destinations in this region
  • Navigation doesn’t take elevation gain into account enough
  • At times favors designated bike routes that are less than safe
  • Route customization easier on the web interface than in the app
  • Audio turn-by-turn navigation not part of the free, basic version

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT NAVIKI

Naviki’s route calculation for safe, pleasant bike commutes is surprisingly reliable. It offers audio turn-by-turn navigation just like google, while definitely doing a better job at calculating bike friendly routes.

Just like other, more sports- and recreation focused apps, Naviki allows you to record your trips, share them, and keep track of your improvements.

The app can be connected to fitness devices via Bluetooth.

A fun perk: Under ‘ride details’, the app will not only show you how many calories you burned, but also how much CO2 and money you saved when compared to driving a car to your destination.

HICK-UPS YOU''LL WANT TO KNOW ABOUT

We’ve had a few difficulties with the address search function. Assuming that that’s because this app is operating globally, you will have to be very specific when typing in a point of interest, or you’ll have to choose your destination on the map.

Though it’s great at favoring quiet streets, the app doesn’t seem to care too much about elevation gain and loss, which has led us up steep hills a couple of times.

It has also sent us on designated bike routes that aren’t very safe. This issue occurs because the app favors officially designated bike routes (like Dixie Drive), which sadly aren’t always great to ride in this region.

Finally, we found that you’ll have to dig deep into your profile settings to switch the app’s unit of measurement from metric to imperial. But it can be done, you all, we figured it out.

Routes are a bit tricky to adapt or configure when using the app interface. You’ll have to log into your Naviki account on the web interface and pre-plan and adapt your route there. You will be able to save it on the web and send it to the app on your phone.

the bottom line

We found Naviki to be very reliable when it comes to finding bike friendly routes and we love that it supports biking for transportation. The app is surprisingly accurate. If you want to pre-plan and adapt your own route, this can be most easily done with Naviki’s web interface. On the web, you’ll be able to explore the different options (leisure, mountain bike, road bike) even when using the basic, free function. Paid subscriptions will unlock spoken turn-by-turn navigation and routes specifically calculated for road cycling, mountain biking, and e-bikes.

You can find Naviki in your favorite app stores and online. If you register, you’ll be able to create and save your routes and progress.

 

naviki for android

 

 

NAVIKI FOR ios

Download Link

 

The Naviki-Team says that they’ll help you rediscover cycling … from your doorstep. We’d love to hear what you think! 

Send us your questions, comments, favorite apps and route-finding strategies.

written by judith rog

Judith Rognli is our Active Transportation Specialist and a Cycling Instructor certified by the League of American Bicyclists. A Northern German native, she has ridden her bike places since kindergarten. She navigates Washington County on her Surly Big Easy Cargo Bike with her six-year-old son in tow. When asked whether she feels safe riding her bike around town with a child, she’ll probably tell you that ‘there’s always a bike way’ that allows her to avoid busier roads and intersections. Judith loves sharing her skills and her passion for riding with people of all ages and ba