Google is announcing today that they are adding biking directions in the U.S. to Google Maps. This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new "Bicycling" layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions - similar to the directions provided by our driving, walking, or public transit modes. Simply enter a start point and destination and select "Bicycling" from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.
Visit Google to try out this new feature. Biking directions for Google Maps is currently in Beta.
It's important to note that Lee County did not have the data needed to get in on the ground floor of the Goggle bike mapping effort, so they did their best with the data they had and they now need our help. Please report problems on the google site by selecting "report a problem" at the bottom of the directions. If they get helpful feedback, then the routes in Lee County will improve. Thanks for the suggestion, Bert!
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The South Florida Complete Streets Coalition reports that earlier this month, Broward County bicycle and pedestrian coordinator Mark Horowitz announced a bicycle route planner at www.browardmpo.org/mpobike that ranks streets in five colors on riding suitability, based on the amount of interaction with traffic. Check it out.
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