In case you haven’t come across it yet, there’s a petition going around to get Google to add a “bike there” feature to Google Maps. For a few locales there’s a “take public transit” option, which gives you the exact bus/train routes, transfers, and times to get to your destination. Similarly, the “bike there” option could be offered to give you the preferred route for biking, and estimated travel time. It’s rumored that Google is planning this anyway. It’s certainly possible, as demonstrated by third party bike map websites.
The main holdup is collecting the data and making the databases available. Only a few transit authorities have done this, which is why the “take public transit” option is only available for a few places.
Obviously people are working on the bike data though. The more data we can get into the system, the sooner we’ll have these tools. The only project I’m aware of in Virginia is Ride Solutions, a joint effort of the Roanoke and New River Valley MPOs. Let us know if you’re aware of any others. I can’t imagine there’s not someone working on this in NoVA/DC.
Anyway, check out the Google Maps Bike There website, which has a bunch of other neat stuff, as well as a link to sign the petition.
Perhaps the greatest benefit to this project would be having “bike there” presented and legitimized as a transportation option, for the hundreds of millions of people who use Google every day. Now that’s promoting bicycling!
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-ffAr_0M34f91E.gif\")
Comments on this entry are closed.
very well put! 🙂