Federation of Snowmobile Clubs of Quebec (FCMQ) and Thunderforest
The Federation of Snowmobile Clubs of Quebec is a non-profit organisation managing 195 snowmobile clubs in Quebec. They oversee a massive 30,000 km network of trails connecting the entire region.
FCMQ use Thunderforest to provide a custom map across their website and app. Being able to access the map offline is very important for their customers, in areas where the cell signal is poor to non-existent.
We talked to Alain Laliberté, who is the Analyste en géomatique at FCMQ.
What led FCMQ to try Thunderforest?
We were using Google Maps, but I wanted a style that looked more like a winter map. Now we have a winter palette for the map of blue and white.
Last year, we were also using OpenStreetMap for the app. It wasn’t ideal having two different map styles across the website and app.
I like that it’s the now the same base map in the app and on the website, as do our users. I also really like the contouring for the mountains and that all the labels are in French.
Will you talk us through the custom map creation process?
I had seen a winter style that I liked and showed to Andy as a starting point for discussions. We liked the general style, but didn’t want to show ski routes or bus stops, for example.
Andy came back to us with an initial version of our custom map. He’d used some of the colours from the example and tailored them to suit our needs.
At this point, the custom style really look like a winter map. It was good work.
I asked for a few more changes like removing contour labels, parking, civic addresses and so on. We decided to add our own points of interest.
We also went back and forth about highway shields and what zoom level they should be visible at. It’s very important that snowmobilers can easily see where they are.
Andy also made the road shields match the colours of the roads by adding a grey background to them, which I appreciated.
Everything is great for now! I’m pleased with your map. The app particularly is very fast. I can quickly zoom in and zoom out. It’s very good.
Anything else to add?
I really like that we can easily change plan during the summer and save money.
Snowmobiling is very seasonal. The high season is about 3-4 months in Quebec. People consult the map in the summer, but not as many. So we can downgrade in summer and upgrade again in winter when demand surges.
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