Google Maps finally adds bike routes

[ScottS]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/google-maps-for-bikes/#more-20456

-ss

[silver]

Glad they finally did it. As you might imagine, route selection is kinda odd at this point. That should get better with rider input which they seem very open to (there is a "report a problem" link by each set of directions).

[EricW]

Good Google! It's pretty nice to plan cross town hauls. Seems good for longish trips.

The routing algorithm is changing daily, so far. You have to adjust the route.

Day one  - just the route. Travel time is a bit slow.
Day two. choice of bike route and won't modify route easily to a major road (like Ocean Park in SM, which has mostly a bike lane.) Travel time is even slower.

Expect it to be a bit different for awhile. Nice to see better maps.

EricW

[kbpfister]

It has been completely useless for me so far, directions for walking still produce vastly superior results, the bike routes are horribly circuitous, don't seem to take into account topography, and have suggested some pretty horrible streets for cycling on

I want to figure out the best way to contribute information to this thing to make it useful

[silver]

I've had good results just using the built in feedback option on the directions it gives you. I told them there was bike lane on ocean park through that and 2 weeks later they emailed me back and said, "Yep, you are right."

[kbpfister]

So 2 more thoughts:

1. in order for it to give "good directions" it needs to make a value judgment between taking a street identified as a bike path that sends me on a long zig zag course or just heading down a shorter non bike path road, also it needs to know wether that non bike path road is suitable for biking or a psuedo highway

2. perhaps this is not a tool for cycling directions but really a way to diagnose problems with the current bikepaths, I.E. it demonstrates how difficult it is to actually use them to get anywhere. The directions won't be good until the system of bike paths is direct and connected.