The Google Street View trike has been hitting the bicycle trails in
Seattle and King County over the past summer, and now those trail views
are available on Google
Maps.
I mashed a couple of trails with the TripGeo.com application to animate the bike path views on the Burke-Gilman Trail between Gas Works and Log Boom parks, above, and the Cedar River Trail from Renton to Landsburg, below. Just hit the “play” button and hang on.
It's fun to see the locales of our off-road rides preserved on the Internet. Seattle Bike Blog located trail views outside the Seattle Google headquarters in Ballard and the Seattle end of the I-90 bike trail.
The Trail Views can be a more useful tool than just watching the world go past on our computers.
Way-finding often seems to be a problem with bike trails as they often not well-marked. The Trail Views can give us a trails-eye view of our bike commuting or bike-errand running routes.
For example, I occasionally have been asked by other cyclists how to get from Mercer Island to Factoria via the I-90 Trail. While Google Maps shows some of the twists and turns, the Trail View gives bicyclists a chance to see how the turns look in the real world, left.
Another good example is the bike trail that runs along Highway 520. I recall a lack of signage along that route the last time I rode it.
I'll be looking forward to the addition of more trails to the Street Views tool.
The trails included on Street Views
520 Bike Trail (Bellevue and Redmond)
Burke Gilman
Cedar River
Chief Sealth Trail
Elliott Bay Trail through Myrtle Edwards Park
Green River Trail (without the sandbags)
Interstate 90 trail (including Mercer Island)
Interurban Trail (Tukwilla to Pacifica)
Sammamish River Trail
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