Better late than never.
The newest update of Google Maps for iOS includes bike directions. Finally.
(Thanks for the tip, Terry!)
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Hey everybody! Google Maps for iOS finally includes bike directions!
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19 responses to “Hey everybody! Google Maps for iOS finally includes bike directions!”
I am so behind in technology. I still use the City of Seattle Bike Map. So old school but at least it shows me all my options before I try to bike somewhere.
They have a neat new mobile version, too (been meaning to write about that): http://m.seattle.gov/bikemap.htm
Ugh, it doesn’t scroll with screen control on my BB Z10… blech. Does this even work on Android or iOS?
Bummer. It works fairly well on my iPhone. What I like about it is that you can pick your rider level, and it will only show you facilities that meet your needs. For streets that only have a climbing lane, it shows which direction has a bike lane/which has a sharrow. Pretty useful info.
Ohmygod, my life feels complete now. Yay. The mobile web app has always offered bike directions but has been so buggy lately.
And there’s turn-by-turn navigation now, too! When biking somewhere new along a complex route I often have to stop and check my map. Now if I get a handlebar mount for my phone, I will be unstoppable!
Wow. Something I’ve been waiting for since 2007 or so…
Does it still say beta? Going to have to check this out obviously!
Yeah! Google maps has bicycling for BB Z-10!… It’s under the menu to the right, select “layers” pick “bicycling” …. It must detect the screen window size and choose “mobile” because just going to maps.google.com brings it up correctly in my browser.
except it is not the best route….hmmm
Cool! Now I can use my phone to find the SLOWEST WAY to get somewhere on a bike! Seriously? You want me to drop all my elevation at once just to go the long way on the Burke, then go several blocks out of my way to take the longest slowest hill up to the top of cap hill? Pro tip: 45th to the U bridge via roosevelt, under I-5 footpath, along the west side of I-5 to lakeview, under again by the colonnade park, melrose footpath to melrose to pike. Boom. the least hills, no grinding climbs, and you’re right at pike.
Google maps routing sucks.
It is going FROM cap hill TO Fremont – so this route doesn’t seem that unreasonable, although it picks what seems like a weird spot in Fremont to me. Anyway, last I rode basically this route, it took maybe 20 minutes, not 38. (Maybe it takes 38 the other way.)
For the record, that was not the app’s top suggestion. But yes, none of their suggestions were routes I would take.
Google’s bike routes seem best for confident but not fearless riders. They routes you on routes that are not necessarily all-ages facilities, but they will also avoid faster but more stressful streets in favor of ones with at least some kind of bike lane.
In the end, it’s cool to have a tool on just about everyone’s iphone that will at least get you there, even if it’s not always the best route. For routes that are often better, try the Ride the City app: http://www.seattlebikeblog.com/bike-map/
I don’t use their route finding software, I just want to know where the entry points are to trails I don’t ride on frequently, ie I spent an hour wandering around Edmonds looking for the Interuban and a connection to the Burke to get to Redmond… (I left my paper maps at home and I didn’t own a smart phone at the time.)
Don’t use it for directions–I just look for streets with bike lanes etc that run between me and my destination. It’d be nice if everything wasn’t green; it’s hard to tell the shades of green apart. Also, I think they include shoulders as “bike lanes” in some places. There’s a difference…(though, admittedly, not much)
One of the big problems is that a lot of the cycling facility data is user-submitted and of very poor accuracy.
I’ve had Google Maps with biking directions on my Android phone for over two years now. It’s useful when no other bike-specific route info is available, but official city and county bike maps provide better guidance. Also, watch out for unpaved bike trails. Google maps doesn’t differentiate!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! I’M SO EXCITED!!!!!!
How do you enable the cycling directions on the iPhone?
I just updated to the latest (7/16/13) update of Google Maps and I don’t see any way to enable cycling directions. I just see the same old car/walk/bus options at the top.
I see no options in Settings for the cycling mode, nothing in the app itself when running . . . am I missing something?
Google searches on the topic have led me nowhere.
I’m on most recent iOS, too.
Answered my own question . . .
After I installed the new Maps app, I then updated carrier settings, which apparently forced a reversion to the prior Maps app. Weird.
Anyway, now its all pretty obvious. This will be pretty handy out & about in Seattle.
[…] they are again — biking directions. On my iPhone. So for a sanity check I Googled, and saw this post from Seattle Bike Blog. Good–I wasn’t going […]