It started off with just Google maps, it then extended into route planning by car, bus, walking and now by cycling. Although it has been available in America since 2010, it has only just expanded to Europe and Australia. They not only show you the cycling routes available, they also avoid hills and busy roads where possible.
Google maps cycling is only in beta stage and is asking cyclists to upgrade its maps with data on routes they use frequently or routes they know particularly suit cycling. Looking around my local area, they have not highlighted many cycle routes, when in fact there are quite a few.
My thoughts of this are that this is definitely a great way to get people out and about cycling locally and on safe routes, they’ve got some work to do to build the data. Around London it is covered in cycling routes, but the further you go out of cities, the rarer they become.
Why not plan a route local to you and test it out to see if it really does what it says. If you are brave enough, I’d love to hear how you got on!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9394677/Google-cycling-directions-now-on-Google-Maps.html
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