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

[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.

[enf.livejournal.com]

File a bug! Well, it won't fix the freeway overpass, but really, people do actually look at what you say in the "report unmapped bike routes, streets that aren't suited for cycling, and other problems here" form, so the routes should get better over time.

Getting quality data about roads is a big problem. There is no systematic data source for pavement quality, and even the information about where hills are is full of noise.

[khedron.livejournal.com]

I was planning on sending a word in, but thank you for the encouragement!

Pavement quality is going to be a rough one in general, since it's going to vary over time. Columbus is spending a *lot* on pothole repair right now.

and even the information about where hills are is full of noise.

*sings* The hills are alive, with the sound ... oh, nevermind.

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

If people with phones that have accelerometers and GPS were willing to share the data, you might be able to estimate bumpiness of ride.

[enf.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point. I was thinking of GPS logs mostly as a source of what routes and turns people chose to follow in practice, but it probably could track bumpiness too.