Last night Google announced the inclusion of bike directions to car, public transit and walking directions options on Google Maps. According to Google Maps’ Shannon Guymon this was one of the most requested missing features on Google Maps.
The new bike directions also provide a new view on maps (see below), one that is more “bike friendly” and emphasizes some features while de-emphasizing others (e.g., freeways, busy roads).
The directions and underlying data to support bike directions come from Google’s Street View effort as well as selected third parties that have already mapped biked trials (i.e., Rails to Trails Conservancy). Here’s an example of the difference between driving and bike directions from AT&T Park (baseball stadium) in San Francisco to the Golden Gate Park:
The rest of this post is on SEL.
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See related: Street View Best Streets Awards in the UK and Edit Places Using Street View images.
Screenwerk 
March 10, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Awesome addition. I use Google maps when I’m driving. I’m eager to see how well the GPS will work on the handheld and how accurate the locator will be since you have to be more precise when you ride a bike. Either way, great news that Google listens to their customers requests.
March 12, 2010 at 12:58 am
LOL. Your title made me laugh! I see Jim Morrison on a bicycle pursued by an angry Aldous Huxley.
Cheers
March 12, 2010 at 9:11 am
Derek:
Glad you got the joke . . .
March 12, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Indeed, Great Joke. I was really hoping that Google was going to be including Pirsig style chautauquas in the map set, but that must be in web 3.0 (man I dislike that term, but what else is there to call the “next” web iteration)