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Old 03-23-10, 11:02 AM
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BengeBoy 
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Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
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Bikes: 2009 Chris Boedeker custom; 2007 Bill Davidson custom; 2021 Bill Davidson custom gravel bike; 2022 Specialized Turbo Vado e-bike

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I have used it a bit; it's very interesting.

- Does a great job showing local bike paths and bike lanes, which previously were not integrated into Google maps
- Seems to have a high preference to *avoid* steep hills. So if you like riding longer distances to avoid hills, it's good.
- In rural areas, it seems to have a high preference for unpaved roads. If you are using it to plot a long ride in the Midwest, for example, it seems to want to take you down dirt/sand roads, instead of sticking to paved highways. This is neither good nor bad -- I think it's *very* interesting as previously none of the online mapping tools that I have seen would take you down dirt roads without a lot of manual work on the user's part. On the other hand, I think most touring cyclists would prefer to stick to paved roads. It will still do that, but you have to tell it you're traveling by car.
- I noticed that in some areas in our region it guided me down some forest service roads that I know are closed to any kind of traffic.

It's a great tool, and will get better over time, I'm sure.
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