GPS Terminology 101: Routes, Tracks and Waypoints

GPS navigators have been a real blessing for motorcyclists. Although some may mourn the demise of paper maps, GPS has made planning and sharing motorcycle routes easier than ever.

Directions for GPS navigation are typically shared as GPS Exchange Format (GPX) files. You can download pre-made GPX files, for instance from RoadRUNNER, but it can be much more fun to design the routes yourself.

Once you fire up a GPX editor like GPX.studio, you will run into three terms: routes, tracks, and waypoints. If you’re new to GPX editing, you might wonder what on earth is the difference between them.

In this article, we’ll explain what GPX routes, tracks, and waypoints are, and when you should use each.

Routes

In technical terms, a GPS route consists of a predefined set of location points leading to a destination that your navigation device (or yourself) will dynamically link together. In simpler words, a route is what you follow when using typical turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps, for instance.

When you load a route to a GPS navigator, the device will calculate suitable directions to get you to the destination based on the attributes you’ve defined. For example, the device might plan a different route depending on whether you’ve told it avoid toll roads.

These dynamic directions are the beauty of GPS routes. If you take a wrong turn, you will see the “Recalculating…” message pop up briefly before your navigator gives you a new set of directions to get you back on track.

At the same time, routes’ reliability depends entirely on your navigator’s planning ability, and every single device will eventually lead you astray. Since routes are calculated by your navigation device based on the points you entered, there is no way to guarantee that the route will work the same on every device.

Tracks

GPS tracks are largely the exact opposite of routes. Whereas routes consist of a sparse set of location points that can be very far apart, a track is a dense, static breadcrumb trail of location information detailing a single specific path to the destination.

Here’s a little thought exercise to make tracks simpler to understand. A route is the planned or suggested path to the destination; a track is the path you actually took in the real world.

In fact, most motorcycle GPS tracks are actual recordings of the path that a flesh-and-blood rider recorded at one point or another. You can even make them yourself—just set your navigator device to record a track as you start your ride, and you’ll have a track to share by the end of it.

Tracks are useful when you want to recreate the exact same tour that another rider has made. It will show you precisely where they went, and tracks can be an incredible way to discover roads less traveled that dynamic route planning would never suggest.

However, few navigation devices can provide turn-by-turn directions based on tracks, as they are quite literally just lines on a map. As such, you must pay close attention to your navigator’s screen (but not so close that you ignore the situation on the road). 

If you miss a turn and end up on roads unknown, only your own wits and map-reading ability can get your back to the track.

Waypoints

Finally, we have waypoints. They are a bit of a different thing from routes and tracks, since waypoints don’t define any kind of navigation path.

Instead, waypoints are points of interest defined by static coordinates. They could be anything the route’s designer has decided to highlight, from hotels and restaurants to natural formations or tourists attractions—or even just a marker to draw your attention to a particularly difficult section of the road.

The GPX format supports adding a title and a brief description to waypoints. So, when you click or tap a waypoint on your navigator, you might see something like, “Moto Motel: Cheap but comfortable lodgings. Best parking is in the rear.”

With all that said, waypoints can help you plan your motorcycle trip. Your navigator may be able to use two different waypoints as location points to automatically plan a route between them. Meanwhile, checking the waypoints on a track helps you decide if you’re interested in making a stop there.

Here at RoadRUNNER, we often use waypoints to build track files before going out on a tour, especially if the ride we want to take follows particularly out of the way roads or dirt roads. Placing waypoints strategically will allow you to create any kind of track you want to follow.

Which Should You Use?

Now that you know what routes, tracks, and waypoints are, you might wonder when you should use each of them. While the ultimate answer depends on what you want from your trip, there’s an easy rule of thumb to follow.

Use routes when you care more about the destination than the path you take. The automatically calculated route may not always take you to the most thrilling roads, but the turn-by-turn directions can (more or less) guarantee you’ll get where you want to go.

On the other hand, you should rely on tracks when the journey is more important than the destination. Although you have to do your own navigation, tracks typically take on more exciting and/or scenic roads.

And waypoints? Well, they just show you all the cool stuff you’ll encounter during your trip. Use them to decide where and when to stop for food, sleep, attractions, and gas.

That’s all there is to it. Now, fire up a GPX editor and start planning your next great motorcycle adventure.