Biking Directions Now Available on Google Maps

In the US, Google Maps now offers step-by-step biking directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new Bicycling layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads.

Many people are looking to save money on their transportation costs and an increasing number are simply trying to be more green.  Many are finding alternative methods to get around town. Some are taking the bus systems, others are riding their bikes and even fewer are walking to work. Google Maps has recently added features that allows you to map your route between two locations and see your options for driving, walking, riding the bus and now biking.

Enter in two addresses and, just like that, Google’s new bicycle mapping service displays a suggested route on a detailed map, utilizing bicycle paths and trails, sidewalks, bike lanes and back roads that will let you safely and efficiently peddle to your destination.

The maps are amazing in detail. You can zoom in and find other routes and then adjust your route by putting your cursor on it and just dragging it a new way.

There are turn-by-turn text directions, too, with photos that clearly mark each change in direction, displaying a street level view of the route.

The maps can also display live traffic reports, so you know what you’re getting into, as well as construction alerts. You can even have the maps show you where traffic bottlenecks are at certain times during the day.

The routes  are amazingly well documented. You can virtually view the entire route before heading out. The system incorporates the Street Views into the router.  There’s no excuse to get lost anymore.

Google worked with biking groups and bike trail organizations in building the service and it shows, with info on 12,000 miles of trails in 150 cities already in the database, with more on the way.



In Motown, we have one of the most segregated bus systems in the country. It is segregated, not by race, but by region. Instead of having a single metro transportation system, we have a Detroit city bus system and a metropolitan bus system called Smart. The two systems don't work very well together, meaning there is no cooperation of schedules at the points where to the lines intercept. Maybe with the Google Maps for bus routes, we can transit between to the two systems. 

Man, if you are still using Mapquest for your maps, you are missing out on lots of new features. Find out about the newest features of Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/biking

As of this writing, the biking routes have not been added to the mobile Google Maps for my Palm Pre nor my iPod Touch.