FABB Blog

 

Fairfax Co map tool for reporting storm-related problems

Fairfax County is testing a crowdsourced mapping tool that lets people report problems as a result of Hurricane Sandy. There are four types of problems that you can report: No Power, Trees Down, Flooded Road, Traffic Light Out. These problems affect cyclists. I hope that no one is riding today or tomorrow, although I'm sure there is someone who depends on using a bicycle to get to work who will ride. Over the next several days if you encounter any of the conditions above, why not use the interactive map to report them.

Fairfax should have a version of this mapping tool to allow cyclists to report bicycle-specific problems. FABB would be glad to compile the data and work with the county bike coordinator to find solutions.

Update: Here's another map from Fairfax County showing road closures.

Labels: Fairfax County, google maps

posted by Bruce Wright at 9:27 PM permalink

 

Bicycling and Google Maps

I just noticed there is now an option in Google Maps to show the bicycle layer. This was possible when using the bicycle directions but it's the first I've seen it as a map option.

The Google Maps interface was changed recently and besides bicycle routes (mostly trails), up-to-date traffic conditions can also be shown. In the image on the right trails are shown in dark green, and traffic conditions are shown in red/yellow/light green. Too bad traffic conditions on the trails aren't show as well.

Construction alerts are also shown.

Labels: google maps, traffic

posted by Bruce Wright at 11:46 AM permalink

 

Bike Directions using Google Maps

At the National Bike Summit this morning Peter Birch, Google Product Manager, announced that bicycle routing will be included in Google Maps. A beta version of the product is now available at maps.google.com/biking. Along with directions "By car," "By public transit," and "Walking" you will now have the option to get "Bicycling" directions.

The application includes 12,000 miles of major trails from Rails to Trails Conservancy, which are shown as a dark green line. We tested the new application against Ride the City - DC and it looks like the Google app needs some work.

Directions from Reston to the County Government Center didn't include new bike lanes on Lawyers Rd or the shared use path along Reston Parkway. From Reston to Meadowlark Gardens Regional Park we were routed onto Baron Carmeron Dr and Route 7, two notoriously bad biking roads.

It will likely not be long before the Google app includes better symbology and data. If you find problems, they can be reported (see yellow box in image above). Users enrolled in the "Trusted tester program" will be able to edit the map data to improve routing results.

For more info see the Google Blog entry Biking directions added to Google Maps.

See a good summary at BikePortland.org of the unveiling of the new application at the Summit.

Labels: bicycle routing, google maps

posted by Bruce Wright at 9:33 PM permalink