Friday, March 7, 2008

Help Getting 'Bike There' feature added to Google Maps



Please click here, support the good cause and sign this Online petition. Googlemaps is great but it could be so much better, for us cyclists too...


"To:  Google, and the Google Maps team

We would like a 'Bike There' feature added to Google Maps - to go with the current 'Drive There' and 'Take Public Transit' options. 

The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route. The Google Maps-based third party site, byCycle.org (http://byCycle.org/), provides these features for two metro areas - Portland, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin, and there are countless other mapping initiatives around the world aimed at accomplishing the same goal. We hope that Google will consider building this feature into the core Google Maps service. 

There are many reasons why this feature would be a wonderful edition to Google Maps. Among them, some of the most influential would be to: 


* Make bicycling safer for millions of bicyclists around the world. 

* Empower world citizens to better adapt their lifestyles to face the challenges of global climate change.

* Help Google realize its core mission of 'organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful.' 



By implementing the 'Take Public Transit' option, Google and the Google Maps team have shown themselves to be concerned and capable world citizens; a 'Bike There' feature addition to Google Maps would be the ultimate statement in support of sustainable development. 

For more information on this feature request please visit the Google Maps 'Bike There' website (http://GoogleMapsBikeThere.org/).



Thank you, Google and the Google Maps team! And thank you, petitioners, for joining us in attempting to realize this very important goal!
Sincerely,

The Undersigned"

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