Google maps adds cycle routes in U.S.

BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Google has made its mapping service more environmental by adding cycle routes to more than 150 U.S. cities.

Up to now directions were only available for those traveling by car or public transport. But now Google plans to unveil its bicycle friendly service during the National Bike Summit in Washington. The event will be followed by a group ride at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Advocates of the two-wheeled transport have long called for biking directions. One group called googlemapsbikethere.org collected more than 51,000 signatures in order to encourage the search company to become more green.

“We think this is fantastic,” said D. L. Byron, publisher of BikeHugger.com, a blog about bike culture based in Seattle. “It will open up reliable transportation options to cyclists.” Byron said that while plenty of programs allow cyclists to upload their routes to the Internet, no other service provides optimal directions for cyclists in urban settings, at least not on a national scale.

The new mapping service could encourage more people to take to the streets on their bicycle, Byron argued. “A lot of people would love to get on their bike but are afraid they won’t find a safe route,” he said, “If you make these options more available to people, they will do it.”

Much like the driving and walking directions on Google Maps, when a user enters a start and end point, the service will select a route and provide estimated cycling times. The routing algorithm attempts to select optimal directions that avoid freeways and busy roads and intersections, and take into account cycle paths, cycle lanes and cycle-friendly streets. A mobile version is likely to follow soon, according to Shannon Guymon, a product manager for Google Maps Directions.