Bike paths on Google!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Bike lovers, check this out! No idea how complete this is, but it's potentially a good idea...

"Considering a bike ride in the Boston area? Google Maps can help you pick a route.

Google unveiled the bicycling layer to its Google Maps feature at the National Bike Summit in Washington today, the company said in a news release."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/03/google_offers_d.html

Comments

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

That's pretty damn sweet.

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

I use a bike path as part of my run and when I was mapping it out, it allowed me to use the Cedar St./Davis Square bike path as part of the route. Pretty handy!

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

It's actually been doing that for a while (incl the bike path as part of walking directions) :)

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

At least since November when I first mapped out that path. ;)

Liars!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I mean, if it's an old feature!

"Google unveiled the bicycling layer to its Google Maps feature at the National Bike Summit in Washington today"

Re: Liars!

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Including the bike path in walking directions is an old feature. Bike directions are indeed new.

Re: Liars!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Lots more details on the particular new features at http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/03/its-time-to-bike.html .

Re: Liars!

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

um... yeah, pay attention next time. also, have you ever heard of a "soft launch"? google does it almost as a matter of routine.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Already filed two bug reports, amusingly both triggered by plotting a route from Google's Cambridge office to the Davis area (Just put "Google Cambridge" in the from line). 1) Don't send bikers backwards down Elm St in Davis! and 2) Maybe the tunnel under the railroad tracks at Sacramento St isn't the fastest way to get between Somerville Ave and Beacon St by bicycle.

So be warned there are still a few wrinkles to be worked out of the map data; if you know the area keep a special lookout for one-way systems. I trust these'll get ironed out in time, but I suspect they're flooded with these sorts of reports right now.

[acidgalore.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, the map doesn't show the Alewife Brook Pkwy bikepath...
I would like a bike route to come with more info than just the street / bikepath names and the turns; as a biker I want to know if a route section is uphill, and even what slope it is. When I bike I want to know these sections and I may want to avoid them.
I don't know, I checked 5-6 routes that I do, and what it showed wasn't the best possible IMO. I'm sure they'll be getting a lot of feedback.
On the plus side, I kinda like the click-and-drag-route feature.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Check out the latlong link I posted above -- there is some information on hills incorporated.

[acidgalore.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks! So what they're saying is that the proposed route avoids uphill sections. I tried my home --> work route and google sends me to go up the hill, not the best approach. So (at least at this point) I can't really trust the directions to avoid the uphill sections. Oh, yeah, the terrain shows contours in a big scale, so you can't really tell what kind of slopes they're sending you through. I think some kind of uphill/ downhill note on the route would make things easier.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

My guess would be not so much that it *avoids* the hills as that it factors them in -- like it wouldn't send you 10 miles out of your way to avoid a hill, because that would be worse than just dealing with the hill. But I don't know the details. I'm sure they'd appreciate feedback, though :).