RunFlex

Well-lit routes

Ask for a well-lit route and RunFlex prefers streets it can confirm are lit, and tells you plainly when it can't. It is a routing preference, not a safety guarantee, so run aware of your surroundings whatever the map shows.

How do I ask for one?

Say it in your own words, such as "a well-lit 5k" or "lit streets, 40 minutes". You don't always have to ask. When sunset is less than two hours away, or it's already dark, RunFlex checks the lighting anyway, puts lit routes first, and tells you on the deck if few of them are lit the whole way.

What does "confirmed lit" mean?

A stretch counts as confirmed lit when the open map data (OpenStreetMap) records the street as lit, or, where we hold a council's or city's street-lamp records, when it passes a recorded lamp. Some councils switch lights off for part of the night. Where their records say so, a street whose lights will be off during your run does not count as lit, even if the map says it is.

Everything else is not confirmed. Some of those streets will be lit and some won't, and RunFlex won't guess.

What will I see?

On the map, confirmed-lit stretches of the route glow amber, with a small "street-lit" tag. When you've asked for a lit route after dark, each card also gives a share, for example "About 70% of this route is confirmed lit." The share is rounded, so even a route that scores full marks reads "Nearly all of this route is confirmed lit." Under the map you'll see the line "A routing preference, not a safety guarantee."

During the run, a chip at the top of the map shows how much of the route is lit, in kilometres or miles.

What if it can't check?

The deck tells you, at the top of the cards. You may see one of these:

• "No street-lighting data is mapped around here, so I can't verify how well-lit these are"
• "I couldn't reach the street-lighting data just now, so I haven't checked how well-lit these are"
• "I couldn't find a route that's lit the whole way"
• "Some streetlights around here switch off for part of the night during your run window"

The last one means RunFlex has already dropped routes those switch-offs would leave dark.

Where does it work?

Map data covers anywhere streets are mapped, though how much lighting is recorded varies. On top of that, RunFlex holds official street-lamp records in sixty areas.

In the UK: Northern Ireland, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Leeds, Gateshead, Swansea, North Tyneside, Tameside, Knowsley, Redcar and Cleveland, North Somerset, Darlington, North Yorkshire, Isle of Anglesey, Neath Port Talbot, Camden, Barnet, City of London, Wiltshire, Leicester, Nottingham City, Barnsley, Harrow, Oldham, Rochdale, Islington, Isle of Wight, Wolverhampton, Portsmouth, Shetland, Shropshire, Stockton-on-Tees, Lewisham, Southampton, Lincolnshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, Calderdale, Durham, Sheffield, Southend-on-Sea, Kent, Sefton, Buckinghamshire, Bracknell Forest, Dumfries and Galloway, West Sussex, Herefordshire, Barking and Dagenham, Richmond upon Thames, Lancashire, Brighton and Hove, East Riding of Yorkshire, Bradford, Fife, Conwy, Stirling, Orkney and Wandsworth.

In the USA: Boston, and part of San Francisco. The San Francisco records cover the lights the city runs. Lights owned by PG&E aren't published, so they aren't included.

Every source, and the licence we use it under, is listed on our data attributions page.

Still stuck? Write to support@runflex.app.