Petition for Google to add bike routes to maps
I’m betting anything that this is already underway, but if you are interested, may as well let your voice be heard on the matter.
To: Google, and the Google Maps team
We would like a ‘Bike There’ feature added to Google Maps – to go with the current ‘Drive There’ and ‘Take Public Transit’ options. The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route. The Google Maps-based third party site, byCycle.org (http://byCycle.org/), provides these features for two metro areas – Portland, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin, and there are countless other mapping initiatives around the world aimed at accomplishing the same goal. We hope that Google will consider building this feature into the core Google Maps service.There are many reasons why this feature would be a wonderful edition to Google Maps. Among them, some of the most influential would be to:
* Make bicycling safer for millions of bicyclists around the world.
* Empower world citizens to better adapt their lifestyles to face the challenges of global climate change.
* Help Google realize its core mission of ‘organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.’By implementing the ‘Take Public Transit’ option, Google and the Google Maps team have shown themselves to be concerned and capable world citizens; a ‘Bike There’ feature addition to Google Maps would be the ultimate statement in support of sustainable development.
For more information on this feature request please visit the Google Maps ‘Bike There’ website (http://GoogleMapsBikeThere.org/).
Thank you, Google and the Google Maps team! And thank you, petitioners, for joining us in attempting to realize this very important goal!
Sincerely,The Undersigned
It is a pity that Google and it’s employees don’t practice what they preach with regard to "taking public transit." How many of the Google tech slaves ride a private luxury bus to work instead of riding Muni and Caltrain. But of course, I was forgetting, Googlers are too highly paid and too special to ride with the rest of us.
Let us not forget, in all the hype and "do no evil" rhetoric, that Google is a publicly traded company. "They are in it for the money!"
To roblingl – way to stereotype and smear a group of thousands of people !
Sure, most Google employees drive to work. Just like every other employer in the bay area. Nothing new here. However I can confirm that some googlers do bike and/or CalTrain to work as I see them on my daily commute.
To Richard – You may want to consider removing the "s" word from your petition. Perhaps "Make bicycling more inviting and comfortable for millions of bicyclists around the world" would do. Too often when cyclists complain about safety authorities just take the cheapest way to resolve the problem : ban the victim.
Regardless, you can have my name on the petition. Thanks for pushing for this "bike there" capability.
What about walkers? We have the same problem bikers do.