Bicycle routes, maps, & resources
Aug 11, 2010 16:27:18 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Aug 11, 2010 16:27:18 GMT
Click on the listings to see what's available online. Please share your impressions of the various resources listed, as recommendations or warnings to other cyclists. And of course, add your own links to this thread.
Bikely.com Over 40 countries
Bicycle Touring Guide Maps for seven European countries plus extensive links for others. Endeavors to provide all free information.
Bike for All Extensive compendium of rated links for the UK
(note: although supposedly they're all up-to-date, one that I checked, Cycle Route UK, was defunct)
Google Maps (US only, so far) See article at end of this post.
Google the words free cycling maps. You'll get lots of hits with cities that will mail you free paper maps.
Google maps bike software:
“It’s still an experiment of sorts,” said Dave Barth, a product manager at Google Maps in Seattle. “We launched the bike maps without complete coverage because of the passion we were hearing among cyclists on the Internet.”
... Spanning more than 200 cities nationwide [US] — and with plans to roll out bicycle routes internationally — Google Maps relies on a mash-up of data, from publicly available sources like bike maps to user-generated information. It joins a host of other bike-mapping Web sites, from Bikely, which lets people share routes in cities around the world, to Ride the City, a geowiki (or self-editing map) app, available in 10 cities (including New York, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto) that allows users to edit their routes as they ride, to MapMyRide, which is geared more toward fitness training and logging workouts.
... [Google has] three kinds of routes highlighted on its maps: bike-only trails, dedicated bicycle lanes, and bike-friendly roads but with no separate lanes. The algorithm factors in variables besides bike lanes, like confusing intersections, steep hills or busy streets, before spitting out the “best” route. The software includes more than 12,000 miles of off-road trails as well.
As more data is plugged into its software, and more trikes — the rickshaw-like tricycles that Google deploys with camera and computers — are dispatched to survey routes, the maps should improve.
...
Mr. Barth says that as Google Maps software becomes more user-generated — it has already been deluged with over 20,000 suggested corrections — bikers will be able to edit the data on a hand-held device as they actually cycle. And for specific routes like the ones shared on Bikely, people can upload their favorite routes as part of Google’s My Maps function, which can be searchable by other users. Google also plans to roll out its bike maps across cities in other countries in the coming years.
For more detailed information, try apps that are more city-specific. Spokes NYC (free) has a nifty interface that pinpoints bike racks and shops along your route. Cyclopath (free) allows users to edit — as they would a wiki — routes in St. Paul and Minneapolis. SF BikeMapper lets bicyclists in San Francisco choose their path type: shortest or flattest. And Andreas Kambanis, who writes the London Cyclist blog, has rolled out an eBook with 25 detailed cycle routes for London. <-- Click text for full article.
Bikely.com Over 40 countries
Bicycle Touring Guide Maps for seven European countries plus extensive links for others. Endeavors to provide all free information.
Bike for All Extensive compendium of rated links for the UK
(note: although supposedly they're all up-to-date, one that I checked, Cycle Route UK, was defunct)
Google Maps (US only, so far) See article at end of this post.
Google the words free cycling maps. You'll get lots of hits with cities that will mail you free paper maps.
Google maps bike software:
“It’s still an experiment of sorts,” said Dave Barth, a product manager at Google Maps in Seattle. “We launched the bike maps without complete coverage because of the passion we were hearing among cyclists on the Internet.”
... Spanning more than 200 cities nationwide [US] — and with plans to roll out bicycle routes internationally — Google Maps relies on a mash-up of data, from publicly available sources like bike maps to user-generated information. It joins a host of other bike-mapping Web sites, from Bikely, which lets people share routes in cities around the world, to Ride the City, a geowiki (or self-editing map) app, available in 10 cities (including New York, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto) that allows users to edit their routes as they ride, to MapMyRide, which is geared more toward fitness training and logging workouts.
... [Google has] three kinds of routes highlighted on its maps: bike-only trails, dedicated bicycle lanes, and bike-friendly roads but with no separate lanes. The algorithm factors in variables besides bike lanes, like confusing intersections, steep hills or busy streets, before spitting out the “best” route. The software includes more than 12,000 miles of off-road trails as well.
As more data is plugged into its software, and more trikes — the rickshaw-like tricycles that Google deploys with camera and computers — are dispatched to survey routes, the maps should improve.
...
Mr. Barth says that as Google Maps software becomes more user-generated — it has already been deluged with over 20,000 suggested corrections — bikers will be able to edit the data on a hand-held device as they actually cycle. And for specific routes like the ones shared on Bikely, people can upload their favorite routes as part of Google’s My Maps function, which can be searchable by other users. Google also plans to roll out its bike maps across cities in other countries in the coming years.
For more detailed information, try apps that are more city-specific. Spokes NYC (free) has a nifty interface that pinpoints bike racks and shops along your route. Cyclopath (free) allows users to edit — as they would a wiki — routes in St. Paul and Minneapolis. SF BikeMapper lets bicyclists in San Francisco choose their path type: shortest or flattest. And Andreas Kambanis, who writes the London Cyclist blog, has rolled out an eBook with 25 detailed cycle routes for London. <-- Click text for full article.
