Yeah, world domination rocks!!!:rolleyes:

If Google was running the planet, cars would be limited to the bike lanes and bicycles could roam freely.

Thank you, Google.

Bummer, I get: "We could not calculate directions between..." when I try to map my route.

Nice concept that definitely needs some tuning, like feeding local crime rate into the program. Preferable block by block. I plugged origin and destination into the program and it gave me 5 miles worth of residential streets. In a ghetto. Considering that I am a middle-aged Caucasian chick on a verrrrry nice bike - I'd rather do tango with 18-wheelers.

Ride Safe and Have Fun

SF

Just FYI...

I entered my old 17 mile commute from River Ridge LA 70123 to New Orleans 70116, and it totally scrooed the pooch. NOBODY would bike that route through the city, although, it did pick up the bike path in the beginning which was surprising to me.

Does not mean it's a bad thing. Needs some human input though.

Google started responding to some of my corrections, they didn't make any changes, but they said they agreed and planned on doing the changes soon. That's faster than I thought.

I've been using this special Google cycling map for a while now. Pretty nifty tool. You can plot with a few preferences like elevation, vegetation route, away from traffic route etc.

http://www.cyclevancouver.ubc.ca/cv.aspx

ridewithgps.com is another great one, though they use the 'walking' directions not the 'biking' directions engine

If you're going to make the bike option available, don't roll it out until you have all of the major trails and MUPs on there. It is frustrating to try and move your route once they show you what they think is the best way there. I still prefer www.gmap-pedometer.com

When I requested a map for my commute it put me on a lot of either park sidewalks or wrong way on the park drive, I couldn't tell which. Either option is unacceptable as they are both illegal. It also suggest using "Tunnel Approach Road" at the end. This is the access road for the Queens-Midtown tunnel! You may as well start digging your own grave.

My route keeps me on bike lanes through most of Brooklyn, but I go straight up the avenues in Manhattan. This is safer than you would think. The left lane of every avenue is full of double parked cars, but that actually keeps the traffic out of it and it is only used for turning.

Get on your local planning department for not sending the data to Google.

Wow, it mapped out my route fairly well until it got to Tampa, where it had me ride up Westshore Blvd, which is a horrible road for a bike. It is five miles of narrow road with no shoulders, no lights, and bumper to bumper cars using it as a major commuter line from South Tampa to the Westshore business district. I go only 2 blocks on this road then take a residential street a half mile East, then go North on a very nice four lane road with a bike lane for the first mile or so. I think I will try using the link they put out there to report inappropriate bike routes. I will suggest the route I take and see what they do.

One other point though: there is a half mile MUP on my route through St Pete, and it used it. Very nice.

Actually pretty close to what I ride. Surprisingly close.

It gave me a pretty gppd route, very similar to the one I take. I get off the greenway for a short spell to skip a couple road crossings.

Two problems:

1. West Virginia is called "the Mountain State" for good reason. Charleston is not as bad as some places, as it is essentially in the bottom of what is almost a canyon. Most of the city is on the flats by the river; however, if you are not on the flats, you are on what are almost cliffs. Googlemaps if you give your destination as somewhere on the heights, will send you up some of the steepest climbs you can imagine; perhaps a trained athelete on an elite machine could do it, but not an ordinary cyclist. There are ususally routes that are longer, but less steep.

2. The timings. They may be realistic if you are going flat-out like Lance leading the peleton, but for an ordinary cyclist at cruising/commuting speeds they are too optimistic.

Interesting, I tried www.gmap-pedometer.com which was recommended somewhere else, and it was not ideal for me and my route. It essentially gave me the quickest route a car would use.

Unlike the experience Elkhound reports, I found the timing amazingly close to what I need (but I do realize there are many people who are faster than me - on this board for example, and also there are more leisurely cyclists,that are slower).

Either way, Google maps is the only place that I found, that will calculate a bicycle route for you and takes MUPs into consideration. Am I wrong about that?

Interesting. For my routes the time estimates seem to be pretty accurate, and I'm not fast at all (average maybe 12.5 mph).

The primary route it recommends for me is 9.7 miles and it estimates 53 minutes (not a bad route, but a little too busy for my tastes). My actual route is 9.2 miles and takes me 45 minutes. My wife is a little slower and 53 minutes is almost exactly what it takes her for the 9.2 mile route. I know a guy from my neighborhood who could easily do it in 35. So the time estimates on flat ground aren't bad at all.

I wonder if the estimates in your area fail because they don't take hills into account?

I tried using it to map a ride from L.A. to San Luis Obisbo to L.A.,a ride I do all the time.It needs some more work,it would have sent me all over hell and creation.

It gave my route a time of 1:38. I average about 1:10. Tuesday night I had a tailwind the whole way home and made it in under 59 minutes. I guess I'm ready for Le Tour!

Good call.

I like that tool, when I know which route, but haven't taken it yet. The elevation plots ( estimated ) can be tremendously helpful in refining a path, especially if it's on the way to work. Or not - sometimes there's no way around the hill you need to climb.

Google's bike routing function isn't bad, at least with the testing I've done. It suggested a pleasant route to work, although it's almost two miles longer than it needs to be. But it's a good start.

There is also http://www.yournavigation.com, though it doesn't always weight MUPs as highly as I'd like, and doesn't have the cycle-friendliness rating system that Google does.

There is also http://www.ridethecity.com, but it is even more limited in scope than Google.

Google maps bike route helped me design a route to work that takes 40 minutes and while it crosses several, does not take me down any heavily traveled thoroughfares. It's all thru residential areas. Previous to that I was looking at the routes I drove, which were deathtraps for a bicyclist, and I had deemed the commute too dangerous.
,
The original Google route took me down some roads I felt were to busy but by dragging the route, I ended up with a fun, albeit a few miles longer ride.

Sadly shows what I already knew...Buffalo is a wretched bike friendly area.
But it did show me one I had thought of before but never tried. Looks like a week-end trial is in store.

Didn't help my daily commute, much, but I've been finding stuff like rail-trails in my region that I probably never would have known about, otherwise.