It's hard to write about the new bicycling tool at Google maps without prefacing the term “bicycle route finder” with such adjectives as “amazing,” “cool,” or “way cool,” but I'll try.
Sweepstakes
First, Google maps made the official announcement of the biking directions tool with a Google Share Your Ride Sweepstakes complete with a $2,500 voucher for American Cyclery. Win by simply posting links your routes to Twitter.
In addition to what I've written about the biking directions feature at “Google maps launches route finder for bicyclists”, here's what Google says about the project at The Official Google blog and the Google LatLong blog.
The official Google blog says biking directions has been one of the most requested features at Google maps. They wanted to make sure it was done right before the release:
“We wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes.”
A partnership with Rails to Trails Conservancy helped to advance the project by adding data on 12,000 miles of bike trails throughout the US. Google also acquired data on bike lanes and recommended bike routes in 150 cities.
Also, the “Report a problem” tool enables users to notify Google about problems they notice a street level.
The Google map-maker tool gives priority to those biking trails, bike lanes and low-traffic streets when calculating bike routes.
Hills
The biking directions tool also calculates the amount of energy cyclists would have to expend on different routes, and chooses the easiest. This is what Google LatLong blog says about hills:
“I don't know anyone who enjoys biking up a hill, especially when you're trying to get somewhere you need to be. Going uphill is worse than simply being much slower; it's also exhausting and can take a toll on the rest of your ride. Our biking directions are based on a physical model of the amount of power your body has to exert given the slope of the road you’re biking on. Assuming typical values for mass and for wind resistance, we compute the effort you’ll require and the speed you’ll achieve while going uphill. We take this speed into account when determining the time estimate for your journey, and we also try hard to avoid routes that will require an unreasonable degree of exertion. Sometimes the model will determine that it's far more efficient to make you ride several extra blocks than to have to deal with a massive hill.”
As for downhills:
Many cyclists will tell you that going downhill is annoying for a different reason: you may have to ride your brakes all the way down. All else equal, we try to avoid routes that require a lot of braking. Of course, in some cities, including my hometown of Seattle, this isn’t always possible! And if you feel like you need a big workout and want to climb some hills, or if you just love that wind-in-your-hair feeling of a long downhill (you better be wearing a helmet and staying safe!), you can always turn on the terrain layer to check out the hilliness of an area for yourself.
In addition, the biking directions algorithm also avoids busy arterials and intersections.
The new features are still in beta, so Google encourages users to use the “report a problem” tool.
“The biking direction feature would not have been possible without our new base map data which allowed us the flexibility to easily incorporate bike trail data, a fundamental part of this feature. It also allowed us to readily incorporate feedback directly from our users, and we welcome all your feedback and suggestions via the “Report a problem” tool — after all, biking directions are still in beta and we're continuing to work on adding more data about bike trails, bike lanes, and preferred roads.”
By using the Report a Problem tool, we all become Beta testers. It allows us to ensure that biking directions are as good as they can be.
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