Cycle Planner on Google Maps

Victor

There is now a cycle planner on Google Maps. http://maps.google.ie/maps?saddr=Dartry+Road&daddr=Macken+Street&hl=en&ll=53.332308,-6.229248&spn=0.051973,0.169086&sll=53.327387,-6.253624&sspn=0.051979,0.169086&geocode=FUF6LQMdVnCg_w%3BFRTyLQMdd8Sg_w&dirflg=b&mra=ltm&t=m&z=13&lci=bike



Early days yet.

Inquitus

It seems to want to take me through parks at every opportunity, thanks but no thanks, it made a mess of Home to Work, Work to Home and Home to town.

Seaneh

yeah it seems to be using footpaths through parks as cycle paths, which isn't really great.

BenShermin

Two things immediately popped out at me, the Inchicore to Adamstown cycleway is on it. The Westport to Achill Island greenway isn't on it!!

There's also a few parks in Ballyfermot that have cycling paths according to this map,I'm almost certain said parks have "no cycling" signs on the gates.

Cookie_Monster

Have had that in new Zealand since I got here. Its a great little tool but requires a lot of input from users to get everything setup correctly; which paths are cycle legal (shared, greenway, off road cycle track etc) and so forth
There is also a public transport filter on the nz maps but I've never used it.

bk

This is fantastic news

Even if it is a little off at the moment, at least it will give you some decent time estimates and I'm sure the routes will improve in time.

It is a pity Google Mapmaker (a tool that allows users to correct mapping mistakes and add detail) isn't available in Ireland. It seems it is the only country in Europe where it isn't active! Even Iran and Iraq have it active!!

Any news of Google Transit going live for Ireland?

BostonB

Doesn't work for my route at all. Tbh google maps has road names wrong near me, never Had much confidence in it.

Qualitymark

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Have had that in new Zealand since I got here. Its a great little tool but requires a lot of input from users to get everything setup correctly; which paths are cycle legal (shared, greenway, off road cycle track etc) and so forth
There is also a public transport filter on the nz maps but I've never used it.

Input from users? How do you give input?

This sounds like a great idea. One improvement it may make is allowing planners to see what the country's like as a cycling and walking place. With one glance they can see that it would be possible to make a linear park from the sea along the Dodder to the Dublin Mountains and Wicklow Hills. And that they could make a series of separated cycle tracks along the canals circling the city, and beside the railway lines.

bk

Qualitymark wrote: »

Input from users? How do you give input?

That would be Google Mapmaker, unfortunately Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that it isn't currently working on.

Qualitymark

bk wrote: »

That would be Google Mapmaker, unfortunately Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that it isn't currently working on.

Typical.

markpb

I've contacted them on several occasions about inaccuracies on their maps. It's (presumably) a little more long winded than Mapmaker but they do respond and fix it.

bk

The other very annoying thing about Google Maps is the inclusion of stupid Irish names that just make it far harder to read then it should.

They really should be an optional toggle.

Qualitymark

bk wrote: »

The other very annoying thing about Google Maps is the inclusion of stupid Irish names that just make it far harder to read then it should.

They really should be an optional toggle.

I suppose they should, but I kinda like them!

monument

bk wrote: »

The other very annoying thing about Google Maps is the inclusion of stupid Irish names that just make it far harder to read then it should.

They really should be an optional toggle.

That does my head in.

There's maybe three things that happened there:

[1] Google thinking it'd be helpful some how.
[2] A hell of a load of or high level external lobbying.
[3] Senior staff are gaelgoirs.

L1011

Data for Maynooth is atrocious:

1: Only one cycle track marked at all, which is shown to extend for longer than it actually does in one direction
2: Every footpath on every green in a housing estate is marked, many of which are not really suitable for cycling
3: Some paths in the college where cycling is banned are marked.
4: Some inter-estate laneways are there, some aren't, in general the ones that are bike-suitable aren't.

Cookie_Monster

monument wrote: »

That does my head in.

There's maybe three things that happened there:

[1] Google thinking it'd be helpful some how.
[2] A hell of a load of or high level external lobbying.
[3] Senior staff are gaelgoirs.

My money is one number 2. They really should set it like the search page where you can change it into Irish if so desired.

AltAccount

Presumably Google buy a lot of the OS information in, it's probably not lobbying but a decision by the supplying company.

Qualitymark

Considering the wrecking of Irish place names by the signage people ("An Nás" instead of Nás na Rí for Naas; "Pás Tioral" instead of Bealach na Cleite for Tyrrellspass, and so on), it's nice to see that someone uses the names in Irish. Though a toggle would probably be good.

rp

MYOB wrote: »

Data for Maynooth is atrocious:
1: Only one cycle track marked at all, which is shown to extend for longer than it actually does in one direction

I think that is because we've only got the one legal cycle lane, and that's the one out on the Newtown road. The other ones marked, like the ones between Rockfield and Parklands are "Trails" according to the map key.

L1011

rp wrote: »

I think that is because we've only got the one legal cycle lane, and that's the one out on the Newtown road. The other ones marked, like the ones between Rockfield and Parklands are "Trails" according to the map key.

The one that's marked, on Parson Street and for far longer than there actually is one there, is no more or less legal than the ones on the Straffan Road, Meadowbrook Link or the ones outside the town on the R449.

The only questionable ones are the one in the middle of the footpath on Main Street, which are now so poorly marked and signed you're better off using the road, and the on-street ones that are wearing off on Mill Street.

Grolschevik

monument wrote: »

That does my head in.

There's maybe three things that happened there:

[1] Google thinking it'd be helpful some how.
[2] A hell of a load of or high level external lobbying.
[3] Senior staff are gaelgoirs.

I'd go with no 1. Ever try to look at maps of the former Soviet Union? Placenames generally in Cyrillic script. I think Google goes with whatever is the official standard in the country concerned. Or maybe my version is busted:

http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&ll=53.363665,26.070557&spn=1.691475,3.532104&t=m&z=8

rp

I'll check tonight, but as far as I remember its only Parson St. that is marked as a legal cycle track, i.e., it has one of the signs below. I'm sure that Straffan rd only has those red circle bike + pedestrian signs, which are not Irish regulatory signs, so its a pavement (pedestrians only).

L1011

There's far more than just the stretch on Parson Street marked with those, and as I said, its shown as the wrong length too. The data is just buggered.

dowlingm

While I agree that part of GMaps transition to being "GEarth in a browser" should be the ability to select or de-select country-specific names as in GEarth, I think the use of "stupid" and mention of high level gaelgeoirs upthread is just taking us down a road we've been before on this forum, and not a very productive one.

EDIT:

bk wrote: »

Any news of Google Transit going live for Ireland?

Google doesn't bring it live unless the transport providers give out the GTFS information feeds. Problem is that GT doesn't always cover off specific requirements (for instance the Toronto TTC journey planner allows selection of accessible routes, GT does not) and the NTA might be afraid that people would consider their journey planner a waste of cash.

bk

dowlingm wrote: »

Google doesn't bring it live unless the transport providers give out the GTFS information feeds. Problem is that GT doesn't always cover off specific requirements (for instance the Toronto TTC journey planner allows selection of accessible routes, GT does not) and the NTA might be afraid that people would consider their journey planner a waste of cash.

Well rumour has it that Google Transit for Ireland is currently being worked on between Google and the NTA. Was jsut wondering if there was any news on when it might go live?

Victor

dowlingm wrote: »

Google doesn't bring it live unless the transport providers give out the GTFS information feeds. Problem is that GT doesn't always cover off specific requirements (for instance the Toronto TTC journey planner allows selection of accessible routes, GT does not) and the NTA might be afraid that people would consider their journey planner a waste of cash.

Data is on http://www.dublinked.ie/

I think the NTA see Google Maps as complimentary, not a threat - the idea is to inform people.

Micilin Muc

monument wrote: »

That does my head in.

There's maybe three things that happened there:

[1] Google thinking it'd be helpful some how.
[2] A hell of a load of or high level external lobbying.
[3] Senior staff are gaelgoirs.

I seriously doubt 2 & 3 are true. I know a lot of the Irish language lobby and I would be very surprised if they had any influence over Google. If they did, they would firstly lobby for Gaeltacht placenames to be left un-anglicised, not for random towns around the country.

My bet is that they used the Official Placenames Database (logainm.ie) and applied the Irish versions randomly. Irish is one of Google's localised languages so it's not surprising.

BTW, I love Irish placenames, they're so descriptive!

bk

Google Maps didn't always have Irish place names, this is a relatively recent development.

Also Google Maps staff are actually based in Dublin, so perhaps some of them are Irish lovers.

Grolschevik

bk wrote: »

Google Maps didn't always have Irish place names, this is a relatively recent development.

Also Google Maps staff are actually based in Dublin, so perhaps some of them are Irish lovers.

Google Maps didn't always go with the local country version of place names.

I refer you again to Eastern Europe. These weren't always in Cyrillic.

I think Google goes with whatever is the official standard in the country concerned.

http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&ll=53.363665,26.070557&spn=1.691475,3.532104&t=m&z=8

ManAboutCouch

bk wrote: »

That would be Google Mapmaker, unfortunately Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that it isn't currently working on.

I realise this is a bit OT, but it does raise a question - why would you spend your spare time improving a profitable company's copyrighted data? If you make improvements to Google maps via their Mapmaker service you will still have to pay to use this data, including your own work, anywhere other than in the browser.

Look at CycleStreets for a counter example. Sure their data is currently a bit patchy (to say the least) for Ireland, but it's based on OpenStreetMap which is open, free and fully reusable with very limited restrictions. Any contributions made to OSM are available to anyone.

expectationlost

Victor wrote: »

Data is on http://www.dublinked.ie/

yeah but its not updatable data

Victor

expectationlost wrote: »

yeah but its not updatable data

???

It gets updated on a periodic basis.

expectationlost

just trying google maps directions and they didn't seem to recognise the dart or the luas as transit

Victor

Google Transit isn't (publicly) enabled yet.

They seem to have done tweaks to the cycle planner.

Qualitymark

Google Maps is such a pain in the ass on the iPhone - you can't mark addresses, as far as i can see.

bk

Qualitymark wrote: »

Google Maps is such a pain in the ass on the iPhone - you can't mark addresses, as far as i can see.

You can, touch and hold, after a few seconds it will bring up the address that you can then bookmark.

Qualitymark

bk wrote: »

You can, touch and hold, after a few seconds it will bring up the address that you can then bookmark.

Oh, thanks so much!