On Monday, November 22 of this year, Google announced it will be bringing biking directions to their maps of Ottawa. Many US cities have had the benefit of custom biking directions, and finally, Canada gets the same privileges!
Google Maps has added bike routes to their ‘Get Directions’ option. Before, you could get directions to and from anywhere in the city by car, public transit, or by foot. In a world where the population is becoming more and more conscious of their carbon footprints, this is a useful tool which will show cyclists the best route to get from point A to point B.
With this new software, Google takes into account the roads with existing bike lanes, avoiding major highways, dedicated cycling paths, NCC’s recreational pathways, and the elevation of the ground – whether it is fairly flat or really hilly. From this, they spit out a suitable bike route for you to get where you need to be.
This new tool will be especially useful for urban dwellers that don’t have a car. Living in the heart of the city allows you access to everything you could possibly need, usually within walking distance. Using your bicycle just gets you there faster and lets you carry more back home!
Numerous students cycle to school, even with the new U-Pass available. Students choose to cycle to avoid the crowded OC Transpo buses, prevent pollution, get their daily exercise, or just because they like the feeling of the wind in their hair.
If you cycle to school, you probably have your regular route over the bridge from Quebec, along the transitway from Hurdman or Alta Vista, or through the pot-holes of Sandy Hill. With Google biking directions, you can learn about bike paths you probably didn’t know about, close-by roads with bike lanes instead of pot-holes and hills, and a quieter route with less traffic.
When you pull up the Google map of the area you want, click ‘Get Directions’ and you will see the icons for walking, public transit, cars, and now biking. When you click on the bicycle icon, the map changes. It now shows you dark green lines for dedicated bike trails, light green lines for streets with bike lanes, and dotted green lines for other streets suitable for biking.
All you have to do is type in where you are, and where you are going, and it maps out your route in blue.
(At press time, the application wasn’t up and running for Ottawa, but it can be expected to launch very soon.)