{"id":168350313,"date":"2010-05-03T11:58:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-03T11:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=168350313"},"modified":"2010-05-03T11:58:33","modified_gmt":"2010-05-03T11:58:33","slug":"analysis-of-googles-bike-there-feature-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=168350313","title":{"rendered":"Analysis of Google\u2019s Bike-There Feature: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>from Streetsblog.net by Utility Cycling<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nBehind the Scenes \u2014 How Google\u2019s Bike Maps Work<br \/>\nThe push to get Google to incorporate bike directions into Google Maps has been going strong for quite some time now, but Google reports that adding such directions presented quite the engineering challenge.  Google uses a few key features to develop the algorithm that generates a bike route, using the already-existing network of streets in their mapping system, which are summarized below.<br \/>\n   1. Bike Trails \u2013 These show in dark green when you generate a Bike-There map.  Google worked directly with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy to find as many trails to incorporate as possible.  The algorithm is weighted to send cyclists on trails as much as possible, as long as it doesn\u2019t send them too far out of the way.<br \/>\n   2. Bike Lanes \u2013 Google has information about dedicated bike lanes for 150 U.S. cities, which they used to build into the algorithm.  Bike lanes appear on a Bike-There map in bright green, and they are also weighted as a priority in the algorithm.<br \/>\n   3. Recommended Routes \u2013 These are routes from cities that have information about other good roads for cycling, which may not have an official bike lane.  These roads are indicated by a dashed green line in the Bike-There map.<br \/>\n   4. Uphill Slopes \u2013 In order to avoid hills (because, according to Google, nobody likes riding up hills\u2026 though I beg to differ\u2026), Google developed a model that takes into account power (exerted by the cyclist), the slope of the road, wind-resistance, and speed.  If the model shows that a given route requires an inordinate amount of exertion (aka too much power required) and will be too slow for time efficiency, Google will send you on an alternate route that avoids the climb.  I could not find out what Google defines as \u201ctoo slow\u201d or \u201cunreasonable degree of exertion\u201d.<br \/>\n   5. Downhill slopes \u2013 The model will also help cyclists avoid roads with too much downhill or descending, which can be tiring  or disconcerting due to the unnecessary amount of braking required.<br \/>\n   6. Busy roads \u2013 In order to keep cyclists off busy roads, the algorithm basically uses the inverse of the Drive-There algorithm in order to avoid arterials and freeways.<br \/>\n   7. Intersections \u2013 Lastly, the algorithm avoids busy intersections with heavy traffic (car) and long waits.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nReview of Google\u2019s Bike-There Features<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/utilitycyclingfeed\/~3\/Qd2prD_Cptc\/\">https:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/utilitycyclingfeed\/~3\/Qd2prD_Cptc\/<\/a>oldId.20100503115833395<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from Streetsblog.net by Utility Cycling &#8230; Behind the Scenes \u2014 How Google\u2019s Bike Maps Work The push to get Google to incorporate bike directions into Google Maps has been going strong for quite some time now, but Google reports that adding such directions presented quite the engineering challenge. Google uses a few key features to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=168350313\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Analysis of Google\u2019s Bike-There Feature: Part I&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168350313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168350313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=168350313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168350313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=168350313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=168350313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=168350313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}