May 31 2008
Google Walk / Google Bike
I think we’re getting to the point where we need Google Walk and Google Bike. You know how Google (and MapQuest, etc) have driving directions? Well, I think driving directions are so 1990′s. Anybody can get in their car, put in $200 worth of gas, and drive two blocks to the grocery store. But getting around on foot, or bike, that’s another matter.
I know that Google started their Public Transit directions, which is pretty helpful, but that only goes so far. What about the walkers out there? In the Chicago area (excluding some suburbs) you have sidewalks everywhere. Every street. Everywhere. You really don’t have to think about whether you can get somewhere on foot, because you can. The downside, of course, is the car traffic, the crappy weather, and so on.
I didn’t realize how much I took sidewalks for granted until we lived in Puerto Rico, and now Austin. In PR, you only had sidewalks in the main town areas. In Austin, it’s pretty hit-or-miss. There are bunches of areas without sidewalks, which makes taking walks a challenge. We’ve spent a good deal of time just finding safe places to cross, quieter roads, etc. Sure, we have the wonderful “greenbelt” walks (ex. Shoal Creek, near us), but you have to get there first.
I’d love it if I could pull up a Google Map and say, “I want to get to this bookstore” and have the Directions tell me where there are sidewalks, where it’s safer to cross the busier streets (a bonus), and estimated time.
Obviously, it would be a pretty big undertaking, but they already have the data, either in overhead satellite images or the notorious “Street View”. (I’ve actually used Street View to determine if there were sidewalks in an area. It’s not perfect, but it helps.)
Perhaps easier would be Google Bike, which would cover the bike lanes in a city. This should be considerably easier to do, as many cities already have Bike Routes marked (though often neglected). The data are somewhere, and dedicated bike lanes can be seen in satellite images. In fact, it would probably be very similar to what they had to do to get Public Transit Directions working.
So, there’s another project for a budding entrepreneur out there. It sounds like the perfect “mashup” between Google Maps and personal knowledge.
5 Responses to “Google Walk / Google Bike”
I was thinking of this same thing in trying to map out my walk from work (Chicago ave and lsd) to the Lasalle metra station. That route is a bit tricky because of having to cross the river and navigating the whole upper and lower streets. I have a route that I like but part of it involves walking under upper Wacker on Columbus and its a bit dank and nasty. But after that I get to walk along the park. I use Street View to see what the walking areas look like.
You bring up a good point. Even when there are sidewalks, sometimes that route is not very enjoyable.
That happens quite a bit around here. For example, many of the neighborhoods, with very quiet side streets, have no sidewalks. So, you have to walk along more major roads, which has all the enjoyment of walking along Cicero.
Maybe not that bad, but you get the idea.
For the Google stuff to be useful, it would not only have to find routes, but use “on the ground” (people who live there) knowledge to augment things. “Walk through this one block of crap, and the rest of your walk is along a greenbelt” for example.
It will also be interesting to see if the whole gas thing really changes peoples habits. Will people switch to more walking and biking and car-pooling?
Or will it be like the late 70′s, where people changed their ways, but only for a very short time. As soon as gas got cheap again, car-pooling all but disappeared.
Of course, saying “ride a bike” is pretty stupid for a lot of people. There either aren’t routes, the distances are too great, and most of the country has crappy weather 1/2 the year (either too hot or too cold).
I also get a kick out of it when people say “move closer to work”. That’s youngster talk. Anyone who’s had more than one job knows that you never pick a home based on a job location. The second you do that, the second you get laid off and have to take a job across town.
Better to choose a moderately central location and hope for the best. After all, a job is a 1-5 year commitment these days, not a lifetime. A house should be a 20 year commitment.
I wish I could bike to work (or at least take my bike on the metra–but they don’t allow bikes during rush hour) What the hell is the point of it then…Course, a woman here a few weeks ago was killed by a CTA bus while she was taking her bike off the front the bus. So much for being environmentally friendly!
You know, part of the Google Transit has walking directions, so they have built some part of that into the system. Though, I’d guess it doesn’t take into account sidewalks or safety or other important stuff (like the “avoid hobos” preference…lol).