Google Maps Bike, Now in Beta, Is NOT Perfect, Post Declares

Google Maps suggested bike route from Sunny's in Red Hook.

A couple of days ago Google unveiled their Beta version of a new Maps interface, which provides bike route recommendations across America. It's a vast undertaking, with a lot of nuances to factor in, but that didn't stop the Post from saddling up to nitpick Google to the max. (If we didn't know better, we'd think the Post has some sort of ax to grind with Google.) One day after it was launched, a reporter for the tabloid pedaled around and took Google to task for several shortcomings around NYC, such as:

In Brooklyn, Google steers cyclists into the path of anti-bike Hasidic Jews by designating Bedford Avenue between Division and Flushing avenues in Williamsburg as a legitimate bike route. The city sandblasted away that street's bike lane last year after protests.

Daaaamn, Google just got pwnd! Oh wait, that's actually a pretty weak complaint, because the bike lane only partially disappears for about a dozen blocks, and then picks up again. (It's actually still basically there, because the DOT left one of the white lines from the old bike lane.) Also, are Hasidic Jews standing by with pitchforks to spear bike riders in South Williamsburg? If so, we don't see them on Google Street View.

The article also calls Google out for misidentifying some footpaths as bike paths in Central Park, and sending cyclists to Jersey via the GW on the north side, although the "official" bike path is actually on the south side. Then there's this, which, while valid, sounds sounds so persnickety it would fit right in as a Gothamist comment: "Google Maps sends cyclists on a hazardous 30-block stretch of Frederick Douglass Boulevard... A safer pick would have been up St. Nicholas Avenue." Ugh, can't Google do anything right? It's not as if New York is a massive city with hundreds of miles of bike lanes constantly in flux. Like the Post, we'll wait for Bing to come out with a bike mapping feature, thank you very much.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on March 12, 2010 5:16 PM

Comments [rss]

longacre

I won't be impressed until they create an algorithm that incorporates crime rates by block to ensure that I'll have a bike with which to use Google Bike Maps a second time.

mcglaven

We have even more to complain about here in San Francisco, where Google seems to have taken into account existing bicycle lanes WITHOUT ANY CONSIDERATION OF ELEVATION OR GRADIENT. The algorithm seems to take the shortest route with consideration of bike lanes as first priority, and no consideration at all of elevation. The fastest way from City Hall to the Haight should NEVER involve going over Alamo Square, unless you're Lance Armstrong.

jaycjay

Beta software: http://8help.osu.edu/3124.html

mountainbb

Too bad they are not using full video. Check this out..

www.slopeviews.com/onsnow-beta I am sure these guys will be doing the bike thing soon as they are all action sport athletes.

babyhitler

both these bike plots suck. They keep making me take shitty high traffic routes. They get it 70% right though. I had to frankenstein my own route whittling it down everyday until I got the perfect formula. Now, I crisscross on one sidewalk and it saves me ten minutes.

ozik

How is it possible that no one has written: "NOW I NO WHERE TO DRIVE MY SUV TO KILL ALL THE BICYCLYSITS! OHIO!"

Spirit of 76

Not a big surprise. As NY Magazine wrote in its recent cover story, Murdoch has his spears sharpened for both the Times and Google.

jaycjay

Now in Beta, Is NOT Perfect

Exactly right. Could be more simply written as:

In Beta = Not Perfect

John Del Signore

Yes, and that's the point of everything I wrote here; that the Post is absurdly nitpicking something that's in its Beta stage. That's why the title is "Google Maps Bike, Now in Beta, Is NOT Perfect, Post Declares"

jaycjay

Oh yeah, I got your intent. I just liked how that one snippet from the headline boils down to the obvious.

Nat

bikesnobnyc wrote a great piece in reaction to the Post's snippy article written by a guy who clearly has no idea how to ride in the city:

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2010/03/right-of-way-watching-where-youre-going.html

bd65

even google thought twice about taking that tram.

jlocke

I plotted a bike route from astoria to downtown, the route went onto, around, then back off Roosevelt Island before heading over the Queensboro bridge.