Why Google Maps gives the wrong route for your scooter

The problem with "just use bike mode"

Many snorfiets riders open Google Maps, tap the bicycle icon, and hope for the best. That works until it does not - and the failures are legal, not just inconvenient.

Inside Amsterdam's A10 ring a snorfiets must ride the carriageway on most streets. A cycling route sends you onto crowded cycle paths where you face a €95 fine. Outside the ring the opposite applies: snorfiets belongs on the path, but bike mode knows nothing about unsigned paths versus rijbaan mandates.

Bromfiets riders who try bike mode get routed over G11 fietspaden where yellow plate is forbidden. Car mode sends them onto autowegen and near motorways. Neither mode is built for 45 km/h two-wheelers on Dutch infrastructure.

What car mode gets wrong for bromfiets

Car navigation assumes you may use motorways, trunk roads, and any carriageway at the posted speed. Bromfiets may not use autosnelwegen or autowegen at all. On many 80 km/h provincial roads a parallel G12a bromfietspad is the safer and legal choice - car mode never selects it.

The result is routes that look fast on screen but include illegal parts mixed with stressful merges. Apps like ScooterNav and Bromly were built specifically to close this gap; Scootmaps focuses on legally correct routes for both plate colours with Dutch zone and sign rules built in.

Five things a scooter navigation app must do

Separate road networks for snorfiets (25 km/h, cycle infrastructure) and bromfiets (45 km/h, carriageway plus G12a paths). One toggle is not enough if the app uses the wrong roads behind the scenes.

Amsterdam and Utrecht rijbaan zones for blue plate - automatic switching between path and road without you drawing zone boundaries.

Respect G11 versus G12a: never send bromfiets onto cyclist-only paths; prefer bromfietspad where it legally beats the carriageway.

Exclude motorways and autowegen for both categories.

Spoken turn-by-turn instructions you can hear through a helmet headset.

How Scootmaps approaches the problem

Scootmaps is a free web app built for Dutch scooter law from the ground up. Choose snorfiets or bromfiets, enter your destination, and the app calculates the legal route for your plate - including rijbaan sections in Amsterdam and Utrecht, bromfietspad preference on provincial routes, and warnings when a route crosses a known restriction.

It will not show rollerbank locations or speed-camera alerts - other apps specialise in that. Scootmaps focuses on getting the legal route right first, because riding an illegal part of the route defeats the point of avoiding a control you were warned about.

Quick comparison before your next ride

Google Maps / Apple Maps: excellent for cars and pedestrians; no scooter mode; do not use for daily bromfiets or snorfiets commuting in NL.

Bromly / ScooterNav: Dutch-focused, strong on bromfiets network; check whether snorfiets rijbaan zones and both plate types are fully supported for your route.

Scootmaps: free, both plates, rijbaan zones, G12a/G11 logic, ferry-aware routing for Amsterdam IJ crossings - optimised for legal correctness rather than speed-camera avoidance.

Try your actual commute in two apps side by side before you rely on either one in rush hour.