Originally Posted by
mnemia
As they say on every page, "Bicycling directions are in beta." These directions are not created by a human who is familiar with the area and the particular obstacles along the way, but by a computer algorithm. It's weighted to take certain factors into account, such as the presence of bike lanes, but obviously it isn't yet sophisticated enough to know about all the other potential problems for bicyclists and account for them. Furthermore, there are different types of bicyclists, with different skillsets and comfort levels (some bicyclists might be terrified to ride outside of bike lanes, while others are perfectly comfortable riding on almost any street). It'd be nice if Google would provide some user options to allow us to bias some of its routing decisions according to our own preferences.
Actually, automatically generating good bicycling directions is probably a much more difficult problem than automatically generating good car directions. Doing so probably requires more local knowledge, and therefore more sophisticated and detailed maps. In the meantime, I've sent in several suggestions to Google that were later incorporated into their maps (mainly paved connector trails that were not previously marked).
True, the walking directions are also in beta, but they are better than (at least for this particular route) than the biking directions. In my opinion their biking directions to get me out to the VA also aren't the greatest in the world. I use a modified version of their driving directions. They suggest taking 4th St. to 30th Ave, and hooking a right for driving and and crossing 4th St. and taking 73rd Ave. and going up to 9th St. Crossing 9th St. staying on 73rd Ave. to 12th St. and than to 62nd Ave. to 28th St. and than to 30th Ave. and than on to the Pinellas Trail. It also recommends leaving the Trail and turning on to 95th St., and then eventually taking 8th St. into the VA.
My route is to leave my apartment complex via the 72nd Ave. exit (if I were to take their directions I would probably go out that exit so that I'd have the traffic light to run interference for me), and go down to 1st St. N., than I head south on 1st St. N. making a right turn onto 30th Ave. N. taking 30th Ave. to the Pinellas Trail. Thank I take the Trail on up to 100th Way, and take 100th way straight into the VA.
I think that it's about the same distance, but a much straighter (or at least fewer twists and turns) route.
As has been said Google maps is good to use as a starting point, particularly if one is unfamiliar with the area. And also as has been noted use their zoom/street view options to zoom in and investigate the streets further to see what is or isn't in that area and adjust one's route to be more logical/safer.