Google Maps Gets More Pedestrian
Google Maps launched today an alternative set of directions for short distance searches: walking directions. One way streets and preference for thoroughfares causes Google’s driving directions to often be overkill for pedestrians. In the text results, click “Walking” and the map updates with a new route.
Google’s walking directions announcement claims the data involved goes beyond just one way streets:
“We’ll try to find you a route that’s direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them.
Take a look at these directions up Lombard Street in San Francisco, against the one way direction. In a car, you need to circle around the block. On foot, Google sends you up the street, as pedestrians don’t need to follow one way streets.
Astute observers and San Franciscans will note that the map leads you up a winding street without a sidewalk. A more appropriate route would be a set of straight stairs that run along the north side. Google is working on adding more pedestian pathways to its dataset. The service is in beta, so glitches like this are to be expected and users are encouraged to use extra caution.
From a developer standpoint, we hope to see this feature incorporated into the API, much as
driving directions were last year. Some very cool things could be done by the pedometer-toting walking community, such as automated distance calculations and personalized workout routes.
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