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Google Maps Welcomes Spring with New Bicycle Directions Feature

March 10, 2010 at 8:33 AM | by | Comments (2)


We bike path-mapped between NYC's Met Meseum and the Chelsea Art Museum

While the Google Trike bike pedals its way through the 360 miles of Boulder's bike paths in an experiment to add Streetview for bike paths, the search giant has begun step 1 of bicycling integration into their excellent Google Maps.

Until we have Streetview to explore nature down the paths less traveled or go deeper into Central Park than the cut-through roads, we can at least enjoy their newest feature, still in beta: directions via bicycle paths. According to the blog Google Maps Mania, it's as easy as selecting "Bicycling" from the drop-down "Get Directions" menu in Maps, and the map will then show suitable cycling routes, and "bike paths with no cars are shown in dark green and roads with bike lanes are shown in light green."

Taking the new feature for a spin, after the jump>

Since we're recreational cyclists who like to avoid the New York subway as much as possible, and also because the weather in NYC is supposed to be 60 degrees and sunny for at least one more day, we tried out the new feature.

When you go to maps.google.com, click "Get Directions" towards the top left, and type in your desired start and end points, and finish it out by choosing "Bicycling" in the drop-down menu as shown above. If bike paths or roads with bike lanes are available—expect more every so often, since it's still in beta—the green routes will pop up and hopefully entice you into a little manpowered exploration.

The Google Maps Mania blog showed a sample snapshot of the bike paths already mapped in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, and it looks more thorough than Central Park already, which is exciting. And with bike path Streetview to look forward to, we're totally taking our bike in for a check-up today. Too bad this function is only for the United States right now, but we'll keep our eyes on updates and expansion of the feature for ya.

Related Stories:
· Google Maps Unveils Bike Directions [Google Maps Mania]
· Google Maps Expands Street View to Boulder's 360 Miles of Bike Trails [Jaunted]
· Maps news [Jaunted]

[Photos: Google Maps]

Comments (2)

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Return to » Google Maps Welcomes Spring with New Bicycle Directions Feature


Sweet!

Double SWEET!
hosteldog on March 10, 2010 at 8:46 AM #Permalink

i'm still worried

that i would die. seen too many of those white bikes in new york
juliab on March 10, 2010 at 5:40 PM #Permalink
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