Allow routing on paths which aren't currently on map but are on heatmap

[EllyReeves]

I'm currently in a remote part of India and many roads/paths aren't formally drawn on the map, however you can see them through the Strava heatmap! When creating a route using Strava it has to follow known roads/paths which means paths that I can see exist from the heatmap cannot be followed, which makes the routes quite convoluted - e.g. on my screenshot below where you can see there is a path between my start and end points but the routing tool does not allow you to follow it. It has meant I've unessecerily followed a road on a hike since I couldnt draw my route on the adjacent path. It would be good if a check could be done using the heatmap data, and if a popular route is not currently a path it could be added as one (it could be a different category to show it is not a confirmed path). But this would help a lot with discovering routes in rural places.

 

[Jan_Mantau]

Are you're sure that's the problem here? There is no visible connection, official or otherwise, from your starting point to the begin of the heatmapped section you have marked so Strava wouldn't route directly to it anyway.

If you know there is some track you could use the manual mode for forcing it.

In general the idea is nice though, including an option like "Treat heatmap paths like known roads" or similarly.

[EllyReeves]

@Jan_Mantau  sorry I should have been clearer, what you say is also part of my problem, when not in manual mode it snaps to the nearest actual path- the two locations I had selected were each end of my blue squiggle but my start/end points are changed to locate on nearest road.

[Jane]

Hello @EllyReeves 

Thanks for posting about this.  Manual mode is the best solution to this problem:

Enable Manual mode to add a waypoint anywhere on the map. There are a few things to be aware of when using this mode:

• Manual mode will no longer ensure your route's path follows roads or trails.
• Popularity and elevation selectors will be disabled.
• Distance and elevation can only be roughly estimated for manual edits.

Strava utilizes OpenStreetMap, an open-source project of geographical data for the entire world, alongside our own heat/popularity and other unique data, to help inform routing decisions

If this is a known maintained trail that is supported by your local public park services, please feel free to contribute on OpenStreetMap to include this known trail in OpenStreetMap. This article has details on how you can make your edits: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216917717-About-Strava-Maps
 

Please note that changes will not be reflected immediately as map updates are completed periodically.

I hope that's helpful.  Thanks again for contributing to the Community.