Google Announces Biking Directions
The announcement came during League of American Bicyclists' 2010 National Bike Summit, where Ali is attending excellent sessions about bike advocacy and preparing for the Georgia delegation's day on the Hill. Look for her report back next week. In the meantime, here's the press release about Google's "bike there" directions from the League!
Washington, D.C. - March 10, 2010 - The League of American Bicyclists is proud to be the forum for Google to announce what all bike riders have been waiting for - Grab Your Bike and Go with Google Maps. Google is announcing at the Opening Plenary Session at the National Bike Summit that they are adding biking directions in the U.S. to Google Maps."This new tool will open people's eyes to the possibility and practicality of hopping on a bike and riding," said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. "We know people want to ride more, and we know it's good for people and communities when they do ride more - this makes it possible. It is a game-changer, especially for those short trips that are the most polluting."
Users can now choose biking when deciding how to get to their destination, starting today, March 10, 2010. If you're one of the 57 million Americans who ride a bike, mapping your daily commute, and planning recreational or trail rides just became easier. According to Google this has been the most requested addition to Google Maps, and the League is delighted that they have chosen the National Bike Summit to unveil this new feature. Google's announcement further proves the importance of the Summit and the bicycle movement in helping our nation become a more Bicycle Friendly America. The Google biking directions will make it that much easier for bicyclists to get to work, school or play.
This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new "Bicycling" layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions - similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select "Bicycling" from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.
Visit http://maps.google.com/biking to try out this new feature. Biking directions for Google Maps is currently in Beta. Follow the League's news feed on the new Google feature on the League's Blog, Facebook and Twitter. If you have any further questions, contact Meghan Cahill at 202.822.1333 or meghan@bikeleague.org.
The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The League represents the interests of America's 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit www.bikeleague.org.
Copyright © 2009 Atlanta Bicycle Coalition.
Comments
It will be great when I visit other cities. In Atlanta, A-train still takes the cake.
Google also added a layer to Google Maps that lets cyclists explore bike trails and bike-friendly streets. That feature could be used by bikers who want to ride for recreation instead of transportation.
To turn that layer on, go to Google Maps, put your mouse on top of the white box that says "More" and then select the "Bicycling" layer.
unfortunately some of our LEAST bike friendly streets show up on that layer ie Ponce de Leon, the bane of my existence (highest bike/car crash volume in entire state of Georgia)
while using bicycle directions in google, a caution appears with a link to report miscategorized streets:
"Bicycling directions are in beta.
Use caution and please report unmapped bike routes, streets that aren't suited for cycling, and other problems here."
Yeah there are many streets that shouldn't be green. I find it annoying that you have to create directions to report a bike problem. You can also report problems by right clicking on the map, but there isn't a bike category.
I know that other cities helped create their local maps. I think you can get in touch with google to share data or suggestions.
see:
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/basemap/
with link "tell us about your data" http://www.google.com/support/mapcontentpartners/bin/request.py?en&conta...
I think it would be cool to start a dialog with google!
Google has gotten back to me about the problems I've marked. They said they were going to fix the problems: I tagged Ponce and Moreland...
So I guess the message is to tag bad routes.
However, I'd still like to start a dialog with them to help improve the map.