http://www.petitiononline.com/bikether/petition.html

nice idea, but do bicycle lanes piss anyone else off? I find them more dangerous than the road - too narrow, confusion at junctions etc.

i find them useful just dont follow what they say all the time and use your own judgment, because some are poorly planed and can get you in some tight spots, but mostly they are more of a help than a hindrance. but i dont see why they need to be on maps, if they are on your route then use them but why would you change your route to use a bike lane?

Depends on the lanes, location, where they lead, how much glass the council has swept into them, how many cunts have parked in them..

true enough - the one on my usual route past regent sq is particularly bad. Nonetheless some study they did in Copenhagen found they were good only for boosting cyclist confidence (& not safety). I guess they have have shitty ones...

the bike show 2wweks ago had somethign about a free whare site for bike path and route maps... seemed a bit much for me as all you need is an a-z

A-Z doesn't work in Nottingham though, does it? Or anywhere else outside Lundun.

1 why leave ldn?

2 get the a-z for where your going

there's an a to z for pretty much every city!

Where will Google get the information from?

Unless it is published and can be purchased or bought from a very few number of suppliers I cannot see it happening. Google do not create headcount happy solutions that require lots of effort to produce and maintain, they license data and work out how to integrate that data and then make it available en masse.

So, for the UK (which is already a small market and would require a lot of effort) what is the one supplier that holds all cycle lane information in a database? Can't think of one? Me neither. Sustrans are the most sane bet, because we all know that local authorities would have poor data in inconsistent formats. Sustrans are mapping cycle facilities nationally as are other organisations (rosie's boyfriend does this as a freelance gig, mapping and documenting cycle facilities)... but this is incomplete and still being done, and once done will be out of date and need a way of being refreshed.

I like the motives behind the petition, but just like having cycle specific GPS routing the reason why it doesn't exist isn't a lack of will on the creators of things like GPS devices and Google Maps, but the lack of data held in consistent formats that they would require to implement them.

It would be better to petition local authorities to work with Sustrans and other groups to help create that data than to lobby Google to do something that they will find impossible without the data available.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/ I looked it up it was quite interesting worth checking out the podcast

The map seems quite good too and if you have gps data from a ride it is worth adding it to their database imo.

good job tommy, i figured eventuly your or hippy would google the some of the gold nuggets in the mtn of shit that leaks form my keys.

Ha! I just remembered the podcast because I thought it was such a good concept. I love open source things, knowledge is something which should only cost time and effort to acquire.

ill sell you some for time effort and a fiver

they are so dangerous that they force you to go half the speed

then if you refuse to use them

you have drivers getting all irrate and self rightiously driving you off the road

because they think that you ought to be in the cycle lane stuck behind some anorak

cycling lanes and speed cameras (the reason I stopped driving)

are the worst form of socialist lefty bollox

ride fast die young

buddha

You have all missed the point. Did any of you read the article?

There is currently a 'drive there' option. Where's the option for bikes? Any option for bikes is good. Just the word BIKES on google maps might open someone's mind to the possibility of cycling somewhere.

"most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route" doesn't equal BIKE LANE.

Where do other cycle specific mapping companies get their data from? Companies that collect it and USERS. Automatically link Bikely.com routes.
Users rate them and as more routes are rated they climb the ladder to become the 'best' route selected by cyclists between A and B.

Negative unimaginative mofos..

Pragmatist.

How would Google do this, with low overhead. Bear in mind that the number of people who work on Google Maps is something like 8. That's right, 8 people. That's all there is doing the deals to get imaging data, vector data, plotting, writing the JavaScript and so forth.

So how, for a very low overhead would they add a feature to a global product so that bike safe routes globally (or at least in the US and Europe) are available?

If you're talking about ratings, and user generated content, and local cycle data... then isn't this best served by implementing an application on Google Maps? You know, when you click My Maps and can add data from other sites. Wouldn't Bikely be the best place to do this?

On one hand you're saying "Add BIKES, get the word up there", but you are not recognising that road data has been available for decades. Unless you have a source for bike-safe roads and all local laws (are bikes allowed on that flyover?) how would you be able to route a bicycle? Would you just say "anything that isn't an motorway"? What about the Hammersmith flyover? OK, Bikes not allowed over that one, but bikes are allowed over the Hayes by-pass and flyover... how would they know this?

If Google can't know how to do this using data, and if the data has to be user-generated and is 'local', then it is best that a third party generate that data so that Google can license it. Which means... petition Bikely to log that data and then license it to Google.

How do they add any features? Someone suggests it and they do it.

Start by using existing bike route data.
The add more roads without including the largest roads.
Exclude roads with bad 'cycling-friendly' ratings - ie. user hightlights section and marks it 'bad'. Enough of these and it's no longer a bike path.
How do they currently exlude 'motorways'? Same deal.

I don't fkning know, I'm not a google programmer. I'm doing my job let them work out how to do theirs.
If they see demand for it won't they think about it? Maybe Bikely is in contact with Google or vice versa?

It's a petition requesting a feature, not a demand for their first-born.

can you buy bike friendly papermaps ?

Yes.

You can get those maps free in all the cycle shops. Try a big one like On Your Bike in Tooley Street.

How about this VB.

My knowledge of route finding is pretty basic so correct me if I am wrong.

I would expect that the route finding routine runs on some sort of shortest path algorithm. Now weights can be added to different roads. Now in google maps and most other mapping software the parameter which we are trying to minimize is time so there is a waiting produced to favor trunk roads and motorways. Some mapping software also alowes you to also choose shortest route.

Every road is classified and this will already be held by google. There is a possibility to have a users control panel where the weighting for each road type can be defined by both numerical and sliding bar values. There can be a series of preset values such as normal (probably fastest), scenic, lorries (an infinite weight put on any v.narrow roads or low bridges, I think google has this info already), no motorways, minimize use of dual carriage ways / large A roads e.t.c. These can be a starting point for people to tweak for their own use. This would not be perfect I know and as a cyclist you may still get sent on the Hamersmith flyover but it is an easy to implement solution which could give large customization possibilities for many types of user.

EDIT: You could also have a community type feature where say someone like VB says like these parameters when cycling around London and surrounding area fast but then someone else in Newcastle cycling with their children would like a different set of parameters. Settings could be sheared and described.