Google announced today at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. that it has launched a bicycle-directions function in its Google Maps tool. “This new tool will open people’s eyes to the possibility and practicality of hopping on a bike and riding,” said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. “We know people want to ride more, and we know it’s good for people and communities when they do ride more – this makes it possible. It is a game-changer, especially for those short trips that are the most polluting.”

This new feature includes: step-by-step bicycling directions; bike trails outlined directly on the map; and a new “Bicycling” layer that indicates bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly roads. The directions feature provides step-by-step, bike-specific routing suggestions. Simply enter a start point and destination and select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu. You will receive a route that is optimized for cycling, taking advantage of bike trails, bike lanes, and bike-friendly streets and avoiding hilly terrain whenever possible.

The tool lists bike lanes and routes in 150 American cities, and input from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy spans the entire country. Since 2000, RTC has made its extensive trails database of more than 1,600 rail-trails and connecting corridors free to the public.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, launched Google Maps in 2005 and initially offered directions just for drivers. In 2007, public transportation directions were added, and in 2008, the company integrated pedestrian navigation. “This is just a start,” said Google Earth product manager Peter Birch. “The tool is only as good as the data fed into it.” He called on the cycling community to help. “We need your feedback on which directions are right, which trails are the best ones.” Users should click the “report a problem” button to flag errors, offer better routes or report when new facilities such as bike lanes are added in their areas.
Visit http://maps.google.com/biking to try out this new feature.