Yesterday at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. Google announced a new addition to Google Maps, biking directions. This is a big step towards organizing and collecting cycling routes all over the country. Google Maps is not only using known municipal cycling routes, but also rail trail routes, designated state routes and county cycling routes. As with other types of transportation methods the Google Maps bike option has customizable routes, but with some added features such as highlighted dashed and solid green routes in Urban centers. Google biking directions is still in a beta version and Google is encouraging feedback, Utility Cycling has raised some interesting questions about the new Google Maps bike directions.
The introduction of Google Maps bike directions is a step forward in bringing cycling to the forefront of alternative transportation in the U.S. Google is welcoming feedback on routes as it will most likely take sometime to perfect the route planning of the system. Urban commuters should be the first to see the benefits of using Google Maps bike. With a greater number of people riding the same routes, awareness and advocacy should increase. Designated Google urban routes have the potential to become more of a staple in city commuting.
Google Maps bike is no doubt a positive step forward in the world of bike mapping, but what affect will it have on bike touring and adventure touring? I have been playing around with some longer remote routes, and some of the choices that the Google Maps system has chosen are not the routes that I would have chosen, but that doesn’t mean the routes are wrong. Some questions I have are what is the average speed that Google maps is using to route time, are the travel speeds constant or do they change with the type of roads and elevation? for example climbing a dirt road will produce a significantly different time then riding on flat pavement for the same distance. I think with time the Google Maps bike direction will turn into a great resource. The system has a lot of potential to map different types of cycling routes from urban commuting routes, off road bike touring, and everything in between, go Google!
I don’t think people should use google maps on their own website, as there are many dangers. It is just not secure in my opinion.