Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Bicycle Route Directions anyone?


Here is something I wish to share with you that you may have been wanting for a long time. There has long been a push for Google to provide cycling directions to complement it's vehicle, walking and public transport directions. Even though, the Google attempt at the walking directions is kind of simple to do (it's simply the same coding as vehicle directions, but lets you walk down one way roads and not freeways).

Now a UK company called CouldMade, which acts as a commercial application front for OpenStreetMap, which features frequently in my posts on this site, has developed cycling directions for OpenStreetMap data.

Simply select the crosshair button (the address system doesn't really work so I don't recommend using it) and place the crosshairs for your original location and your destinations (you can have more than one). Make sure you select the cycling button and this will give you a suitable cycling route to your destination(s). The routing algorithms are not perfect and CloudMade are still trying to make them more accurate, but it is a start.

Have a look at an example I have created of cycling route directions from Ringwood to Frankston. Remember that this is OpenStreetMap data, which means it is a work in progress and not all data exists yet, but it is getting there. So be forgiving if your street is not yet there or it is there but has no name. You can even add the info yourself by visiting OpenStreetMap if you wish! Have fun and tell me of your cycle route directions which have been made using this site!

4 comments:

john said...

I'm not sure how to select the crosshair tool :-/

john said...

hmm sorry ignore that, I was looking at http://www.openstreetmap.org/, but at http://maps.cloudmade.com it works (right-click). Nice find.

Anonymous said...

Wow what a perfect find I was looking for Boronia Rd. to Cranbourne Rd. by bicycle and found this by chance !!

Thanks a million !!

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Anonymous said...

BRILLLIANT !