Google Maps 'Bike There'

A new group is trying to convince Google Maps to add a 'Bike there' option.

You can sign the petition here. Here's City Paper on it.
 

Comments

[Lee Watkins]

There is already a visual option for topography, so it would seem natural that they should be able to calculate the most flat path. Sometimes the flattest path is faster than the shortest one. This would seem useful for fuel efficiency on cars - not just bikes.

[Jack Cochrane]

I'm not sure the petitioners realize how much work and data is involved. Google doesn't have bike route data on hand. You don't want to recommend just any road to cyclists. I believe the site mentioned in the petition - ByCycle - is dormant and had data troubles. Last I heard ByCycle was trying to load existing GIS-based bike maps but those tend to be poor and inaccurate. It would be a huge undertaking to gather all the data. Google would wonder where the income is.

But don't despair! I'm working on something called the Collaborative Bike Map Project – or BikeZip for short. Google already provides a great interface for programmers to create their own tools. So in my spare time I'm creating a website that will let cyclists collaboratively enter information about every road and trail, Wiki-style, to create one big bike map. In a few days I'll have a pilot version on the Web. Map "routes" (all roads and paths, even hostile ones) will have associated data such a route type, difficulty level, text description, comments, images, etc. The site will of course display the resulting map using the Google interface. Routes will be color-coded by type, clickable to get more info, filterable by various criteria, etc. The result should be a much-more accurate up-to-date map than any one source could create. If Google wants to use data generated this way, all the better.

[Chris]

Maps at Ask.com have the option to choose a walking route instead of a driving route. This could be used in the interim as an alternative.

http://maps.ask.com/maps