Comments on: Google Maps Now has Biking

By: Allie

Allie — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:49:14 +0000

It’s a great start! I think it’ll get better with time. You never can fully trust Google Maps…

By: James

James — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:20:25 +0000

I think its awful. I asked for my my typical 16 mile commute and the directions it gave me kept me on residential neighborhood sidestreets and increased my distance by almost 3 miles. I’ll pick my own route, thank you.

By: Ringer

Ringer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:10:20 +0000

Hmmm…doesn’t seem to recognize the bike/pedestrian path in our area. That’s kind of a bummer. I’m not in a major metropolitan area, so maybe Google doesn’t know about the non-road routes around here. We’ll see if they develop that better.

It is an encouraging sign, though.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:46:22 +0000

Wow… and it’s good. Doesn’t pick my perfect route, but definitely gets close. Nicely done Google.

By: Christi Johnson

Christi Johnson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:36:28 +0000

glad google is looking out for us bike riders

By: BluesCat

BluesCat — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:26:51 +0000

Phoenix seems to have a pretty good presence in this new feature. I put my home address in “A”, my work address in “B” and it found three routes: My current, favorite route; my old, alternate route; and a new route I thought of trying one time but haven’t had the chance.

Pretty slick.

By: Bike Shop Girl

Bike Shop Girl — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:59:21 +0000

Opoponax -

When I get back into town Saturday I’ll be trying different routes. It seems to have to do with where you are, how well your local area is documented for cyclist.

By: The Opoponax

The Opoponax — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:52:33 +0000

Any idea on how accurate/good the routes are, yet?

I just put a couple of my most common destinations in and got a WILDLY different route for one of them, which I would never have thought to take. Doesn’t look like a bad route, per se, and google maps times it at 20 minutes (which is actually quicker than my usual time to the same destination). So I’m not sure whether I just discovered a major shortcut or the system is merely flawed.

By: John Gordon

John Gordon — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:41:35 +0000

Now we need to work on a map for which bicycle trails are suited for inline skating as well.

By: Marc

Marc — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:58:39 +0000

Eh, it’s a start – I’ll be interested to see how this turns out once it gets out of beta testing.

I put in my commute and it had me going down Reading Road… the SCARIEST road I’ve ever biked down in Cincinnati. Lots of cars, no bike lanes, and it goes through some scary neighborhoods. I remember the last time I rode that way I almost got hit.

So for the nonce, I’ve got some alternate roads I prefer to take instead. But I like the idea nonetheless!