Google Biking

[topaz]

Google Maps gets biking directions: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/biking-directions-added-to-google-maps.html

Dark green routes are dedicated bike trails and sidepaths; light green are bike lanes, and dashed green lines are "recommended" roads for biking.

I haven't explored it much yet to see what I think of the actual routes it suggests.  It seems to recommend bike paths and lanes strongly over other roads, which is fine, but of course it can't really take things like road surface quality into account.

Comments

[randysmith]

but of course it can't really take things like road surface quality into account.

I see this and I think "why the heck not??". It would require some level of crowd sourcing, but that'd be a useful thing to suggest to the team. If I work there I may try and do that :-}.

Your point about the recommendations is interesting, though; I've had multiple modes in my own biking life of whether I preferred direct path with traffic, or mellow bikepath without. That might be an area for personal preference learning. Hmmm.

(Can you tell I'm considering working at Google? It gives a much more personal investment in these kind of issues :-})

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

bike + geeky = beaky?

[khedron.livejournal.com]

From the blog, it sounds like it may take hills into account, which is neat.

Unfortunately for me, it can't actually create bike routes where there really aren't any. The shortest path to the close Mexican place for me is on a busy and fast road through the middle of a freeway cloverleaf. Google, can you fix that?

More seriously, to the local coffeeshop it recommends taking the bigger surface street instead of the small winding streets. Hills may play a role in that too. For my comfort factor, I take the side streets with the hills every single time.