Destinations & Apple Watch — Safe Rides Just Got a Lot More Flexible

BikeRight has always been about one thing: getting you home safe on routes that prioritize real cycling infrastructure. Until now, that meant loop routes—pick your distance, generate three loops, ride the safest one back to where you started.

Today we're adding two big features that change what BikeRight can do for you.

One-way trips to any destination

Sometimes you're not riding in a loop. You're commuting to work. Heading to a friend's place. Riding to the farmer's market across town. You need to get somewhere specific—and you want the safest way to get there.

Now you can. Tap "Add a destination" on the home screen, type an address, and BikeRight will find multiple routes to get you there—each one scored and ranked by safety, just like loops. You'll see how much of each route uses protected bike lanes, shared paths, and quiet streets, so you can make an informed choice before you clip in.

Under the hood, BikeRight requests alternative routes from the mapping API, then runs every alternative through the same safety analysis it uses for loops—matching each segment against OpenStreetMap cycling infrastructure data and scoring the whole thing. The safest route is always at the top.

One-way mode is deliberately simple. No "make it safer" refinements, no "generate 3 more"—those tools make sense for loops where we control the shape of the route, but for point-to-point trips the alternatives Google returns are the best candidates. We score them, sort them, and let you choose.

BikeRight on Apple Watch

The second big addition is a standalone Apple Watch app. Not a companion app that mirrors your phone—a fully independent app that generates routes, shows safety scores, and navigates you turn by turn, all from your wrist. Your phone can stay in your bag or at home entirely.

But the real story here isn't the screen. It's what you feel.

Haptics that keep your eyes on the road

Cycling is different from running. You're moving faster, you're sharing the road with cars, and looking down at a screen—even for a second—is a real safety risk. That's why the Watch app was designed around haptics first, screen second.

Turn-by-turn haptics fire twice for every manoeuvre. At about 200 metres out, you get a gentle pre-cue—a tap that says "something's coming up." At 100 metres, you get the specific haptic: a distinct left-turn, right-turn, or general manoeuvre pattern. Left turns feel different from right turns. U-turns have their own pattern. Arrival is a clear success tap. You learn the language quickly, and after a few rides you barely need to glance at your wrist.

Then there's something we haven't seen in any other cycling app: safety haptics.

Right after a turn cue, BikeRight taps out a short pattern that tells you what kind of road you're about to ride on. One tap means the next segment is protected—a dedicated bike lane or separated path. Two taps means it's partially protected. Three taps means you're exposed—shared road, no cycling infrastructure. Four taps means hostile—high-speed road, no shoulder, be very alert.

It's a subtle thing, but it changes how you ride. You don't need to look at a map to know that the next stretch after this left turn is an unprotected arterial road. You feel it. And that half-second heads-up is exactly the kind of awareness that keeps cyclists safe.

What you see on the Watch

The screen complements the haptics. During navigation, the Watch shows your current manoeuvre with a large icon and distance to the next turn, a safety label for the current segment (Protected, Caution, Exposed, Hostile) with a colour-coded dot, a "then" preview of the next manoeuvre, and your speed, remaining distance, and elapsed time. The entire background tints to match the safety rating of the road you're on—green fading to amber to red—so even a peripheral glance tells you something useful.

If you go off-route, a warning haptic fires and BikeRight attempts to reroute you automatically. If rerouting fails after a few tries, you get a different haptic so you know to stop and figure it out. The whole system is designed so that your wrist tells you everything your eyes can't afford to check.

Still free. Still private.

Both features ship today as a free update. No subscription, no premium tier for Watch, no ads. Destinations and Apple Watch work the same way everything in BikeRight works—your data stays on your device, and we don't have servers to send it to even if we wanted to.

Set a destination, or strap on your Watch and generate a loop. Either way, BikeRight has your back.