On Gene Bisbee's blog at Biking Bis, I often read some great stories that I don't see elsewhere, or stories where he ties another related piece to what everyone else is reporting. On October 13th, he reported on Google's latest developments in rolling out more detailed data including college campuses, parks, water features, and even trails and paths. Best yet perhaps, is that they plan to begin offering Bike There riding directions at some point in the not-so-distant future.
In Gene's blog post, he points out a competitor who already offers this service, Ride the City. The creators began working in the fall of 2007, and currently the service is limited to a handful of cities: New York City, Chicago, Austin, Louisville, and San Diego. Seattle is also available as an 'alpha' city. Not only does this service attempt to route cyclists on paths, greenways, and bike lanes first, it offers the option to rate the route it creates. This feedback mechanism ought to allow them to bump up the accuracy of their database and hence give better and better results over time. If you live in any of the cities that they cover, be sure to check them out and let them know how they are doing.
I believe it is services like these that help get cyclists on the road to adventure whether in their own city or a new one. (Of course, paper maps are still a good bet, too!)
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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures and persons from Adventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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