Mapquest has announced a new “Bike Route” service in their mapping program.
As most of you know, Google already has a bike route option available for some of their mapping areas and is expanding that option daily.
I’m glad to see Mapquest jumping on the bandwagon, or in this case the tagalong.
What pleases me most is that it sounds like whenever/wherever possible, the bike route will involve trails instead of roads. I think that is critical for safety and enjoyability.
 |
| Hopefully the new mapquest bike routes will direct bicycle riders under roads instead of on them. |
Here is a list of rules or criteria that Mapquest has applied to the new Bicycle Routes:
- Avoids roads where bicycle access in OpenStreetMap is set to false
- Avoids all limited access highways
- Favors bike specific paths (road segments that have bicycle access only – no auto or pedestrian)
- Favors walkways with no auto access
- Applies various weights to roads based on the
maxspeedtag (ex. favors routes wheremaxspeed<= 30 mph)
For more details, visit the mapquest blog page by following this link.
5 comments
Skip to comment form
Oh! You're is the first bike blog I've seen this mentioned.
Now I need to figure out what it means and how to make it work — a "bike there" option is not available on the regular MapQuest — this looks like part of a project that involves the OSM project. I wasn't aware of a MapQuest project like that.
Hey Yokota…
I just found out about the Mapquest bike option today from the Recumbent Blog.
My guess is that it's still in a Beta-type release, but I'm glad the option is there.
I'm sure that, like the Google bike option, it will improve with time and user input.
Well, here's quick and dirty test of the API. For my test location (west of downtown Santa Cruz, CA to the Boardwalk), it doesn't use any of the bike facilities.
The directions are different from the driving directions and actually matches what Google gives for walking directions for the same start / stop locations.
I should try a different location where a bike facility is a little more obvious. I'll try to hack on this some more over the long holiday weekend (in between eating and spending time w/ my family).
Have a good one!
Oh! You're is the first bike blog I've seen this mentioned.
Now I need to figure out what it means and how to make it work — a "bike there" option is not available on the regular MapQuest — this looks like part of a project that involves the OSM project. I wasn't aware of a MapQuest project like that.
Here’s the problem. . . I need a major course planned (approx. 400 miles) from Western Mass. in the U.S. to Ottawa, ON in Canada and seem to be striking out. The one source that creates such a map says “Beware” and “Use Path at Your Own Risk”. . . given how much forest it sends you through and the number of Bear and Moose in the region I’d say “fair warning”. . . but, it doesn’t help with the planning. . . sigh!