Google Maps Adds Directions for Cyclists
gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com
gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com
It has much more coverage than Google currently does, but doesn't do directions.
UK-only currently, but seems much more advanced than the Google offering. It suggests three routes depending on your preference for speed or peacefulness and I like the little diagram that shows you how hilly the chosen route is.
I also tried http://maps.cloudmade.com that someone recommended above. That one didn't pick my route. It picked the shortest driving time route. I guess this makes sense, since looking at http://opencyclemap.org, I don't see any bike maps listed near my house.
Incidentally, I just noticed that Google maps also has an option to get directions for public transportation, at least in my city. That's pretty cool. I knew there were buses running near me, but I hadn't ever taken the time to look them up.
I am really surprised they didn't leverage the OSM data for bike routes. They used a group I had never heard of (though the group sounds pretty cool -- railways to bikepaths!). I wonder if they'll expand/revise using the OSM dataset.
It knows about cycle routes, alternatives to busy streets and can do routes based on hill gradient.
Or perhaps just a heat map showing hilly areas would be good enough.
You can drag the route around to avoid hills manually.
It would be nice if it did it automatically, to avoid the worst hills. To do it optimally it'd need to know your weight...
* Your fitness level.
* What kind of gearing your bike has.
* The weather.
* How much you actually feel like riding up a hill.
The route going to the Safeway bombs down Page street to Laguna and then wraps around. Overshooting like this sort of makes sense, but I would have just cut out at The Wiggle at Scott street and weaved over.
On the way back it used The Wiggle, but then goes up Page, which has a bike path, but is very steep. Elevation-wise, it makes more sense to do the full Wiggle over to Fell and then use the Panhandle bike trail.
I wonder if it's based on special cases (like the mapped bike routes) or terrain.
Anyway, that's great.
At a quick glance at Google vs Ride the City for NYC, Google seems to be lacking in a lot of on-the-street know-how (though of course has a fantastically better UI). Something similar happened with Google's public transit directions vs. http://hopstop.com/. Google seems to tend to idealize the model (assumes that intersections work, lights are timed, and trains run on time), while Ride the City and HopStop, for all their awkwardness, seem to understand the many things that can go wrong with seemingly clearcut routes.