Google maps just added bicycling
 

Looks like google maps added bicycling as a routing option today. :)

Really? I don't see it on my Google Maps... is there a trick I'm missing?

Edit: Just found it. :o

not in canada yet :(

Shows me the most direct route for my commute, not the most pleasant or most traffic friendly. Was able to drag route over to the one I actually take, and it says I go two miles further than I had thought! Anyone know how accurate the distances are?

Hey ... It suggested a route to work i didn't know existed

how cool. it suggested pretty much the route i take to work, MUP and everything.

This link lists all the cities that are covered, also explains some of the methodology behind the route calculations.

http://bikehugger.com/2010/03/post-3.html

It has some work to do, but still not bad. My first suggested route is pretty nice, but the other 2 are good ways to die. Great concept, though. Hopefully everyone can add their input and make it great.

oh wow. bye bye, mapmyride.com

Very cool. I wonder if there is a way to add (at least for my own personal use) little cut-throughs and such? For instance, I hop a curb on my commute to get from a freeway access road that loops around under the freeway at a train track, to cut across and get to a road that actually crosses the track. When I plug into Google Bicycling, it doesn't presume (and I don't think there's any way to force) jumping curbs or cutting through non-roads and non-MUPs.

EDIT: There is a way to report "problems". I reported a couple of the spots where Google Bicycling routing differs from the route I actually take. We'll see if they respond.

The way this works is your route follows a roadway network and it would be difficult to get the software to "hop the curb" from one line/road to another without them being connected. All software has its limitations.

The map itself is helpful in that it show bikes lanes, trails, and MUPs. However the suggested route between work and my house, while closely mimicking my actual route, puts me on a busy highway rather than on the adjacent bike trail. I can understand the difficulty and it underscores my frustration with the city. While we have some really nice bike trails that run in and out of town, the entrances can be really difficult to find.

you could run the route to the jump point and pick up again at the next jump point. make a note somewhere that the route breaks here... of course you will loose the bit inbetween but it's still a route.

Its a great Start,I was playing with it this morning and it suggested 3 routes and one I played with that never crossed my mind. Sure it used roads I wouldn't bike on but I just dragged it to roads I will use. I went and created a nice bike route, playing with miles, going around roads I will use or not just by the geography I know. Then I drove it out on the way to work this morning. It turned out to be a nicer route than the one I use with the same mileage. Nice job as far as I am concerned, Can't wait to see how it evolves.It is a great tool to work with but don't expect it to do all the thinking for you. No map program has ever been like that. Being in the trucking industry I use map programs daily.

The route that it suggests for my commute sends me down a busy, two-lane, shoulderless highway full of inattentive drivers going 55mph to 70mph. With ditches that drop off pretty steeply on either side. I've considered the route but have never had the nerve to take it. It's definitely more direct than the relatively low-traffic, residential route that I actually take.

It gave me a route that is reasonably close to the one I use. It picked up the MUP, but didn't find the shortest way to onto it, no doubt because that isn't an 'official' route. And it took me off the MUP instead of onto its extension that borders a golf course. I think that was also because you have to go through the official end of the MUP, over 15' of gravel, and onto a road. It did find a way through a residential area that would avoid the time spent on a busy 5 lane street. I hadn't thought you could get through a gated community - I guess you can.

It shows the route as much longer than my GPS. The Google route IS longer, but not by that much. I think it is from rounding each segment into tenths of a mile and then adding them?

I suggest that everyone actively report "problems" with all the places you know on your routes. I already found a couple errors. It didn't know about a bicycle/pedestrian underpass across a busy road, and misclassified one street as not having bike lanes (which you can see in satellite view)

The route it suggested for my commute is better than the one it suggests for driving. Not as good as the one I take.

For rides where I don't know where I'm going, I'll use it. Then I'll switch to earth view and zoom in and adjust the route accordingly.

For those of us living where Google doesn't cover, there is an alternative, the OpenStreetMap-based OpenCycleMap (http://www.opencyclemap.org/). For route suggestions, YourNavigation might be of use (http://www.yournavigation.org/). It's a wiki map, so if you see problems you can fix them yourself, right away.

It can also be useful for those who live in Google's coverage area. For example, you can use the OpenStreetMap data to generate a Garmin-compatible map with MUPs and other non-road ways in your area!

I Googled my bike commute route, and it followed the actual route I take for the first half (5 miles). But then it inexplicably shifted onto a very busy, narrow arterial road that is probably the most dangerous road to cycle in my part of the city. The odd thing is that there is a marked city bike route that I follow most of the way to work, and if the Google route had just stayed on that it would have been fine. The Google map even shows the city bike route with a dotted green line, but recommended taking the busy highway instead. ... Doh. Needs work, but I applaud them for trying.

Neat! Plotted out my two routes (one with hills one without, but the one with is on the MUP, so its a bit of give and take). Without a cyclocomputer I was correct in guesstimating 8.5 miles and 10 miles for the two of them.

You may be in Myles Standish yes? I just mapped my route from the Galleria to Verizon.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en...77697&t=h&z=12

Bike maps don't have the save function though. I had to use the road feature to map the ride.

Mapped my route and sure enough it sent me on the shortest path almost entirely along a freeway frontage road with 1.5 foot "bike lanes" without signage and a speed limit of 45 mph (translated to 65mph). Like the drag and drop function of the routes though (found my route easily enough) looks like it will be fun to mess around with. Got a new route mapped out for tomorrow.

Yeah, this one needs a little work. It appears to route you onto secondary roads, but that's about as complex as it gets. The roads it suggested to me are death traps. With a little bit of playing around, you can use it to find a decent route assuming that you are familiar with the area through which you commute.

Thanks for the tip. Love Google and their world domination.