About
One person, 713 roads, all of them checked
Routes is a one-person project. I'm Simon Keane, a product designer. I build the iPhone app, I write the roadbooks, and I fact-check every road before it earns a place in the catalogue.
I started this because most lists of great driving roads are rewrites of other lists. Nobody checks the road. I wanted a catalogue where every entry is traced along its real geometry, where the hairpin counts are measured rather than borrowed, and where a road only gets in if it would be worth a detour.
How a road gets verified
Every road goes through the same checks before it ships:
- Traced, not drawn. The line comes from real road geometry (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Corner counts, gradients, hairpins and the elevation profile are computed from that geometry, so the stats you see are measured, not quoted.
- Sourced. Each road carries a provenance record: where the claim of greatness comes from, with the quote and a link. You'll find the sources at the bottom of every road page.
- Written by a person. The roadbooks and the reasons for picking each road are mine. If I can't say why a road earns its place, it doesn't go in.
- Reviewed on update. Hazards, best seasons and closure notes are revisited as the catalogue evolves, and every batch ships as a numbered version you can follow on the changelog.
Today that adds up to 713 roads across 85 countries, 12 multi-day Grand Tours and 68 themed collections, with the same catalogue powering this site and the app.
The app
Routes for iPhone is the same catalogue built for the road: offline roadbooks, live weather, a 7-day best-days-to-drive forecast and 3D fly-bys of every route. Get it on the App Store.
Say hello
Found a mistake, or a road that deserves a place? Email me at simon@keane.studio. I read everything.