Hiking in France with Google Maps

Randonee dans l'Ain is a really nicely designed website promoting hiking, horse riding and bike trails in Ain, an area of the region Rhône-Alpes in France.



Each of the trails can be viewed on Google Maps. The route of each selected trail is displayed on the map and you can select to view restaurants, activities, photos and accommodation along and near the trail.



Each trail also comes with an elevation chart and with information concerning the route's length and the approximate time it takes to complete.



________________

Copenhagen Bike Parking on Google Maps

Anyone who has ever visited Copenhagen won't be in any doubt about how much its inhabitants like to cycle. It is said that at least 36% of all Copenhagen citizens commute to work, school or university by bicycle.

The city council of Copenhagen has released open data showing all of the bike parking locations in the city. Soren of microformats.dk imported the data into Fusion Tables and, in less than ten minutes, he created this Google Map of bike parking locations.

The map shows 4,190 bike parking spots throughout Copenhagen, with space for 48,115 bicycles to be parked. This would probably be more than enough for most cities, however with half a million people owning bikes in the city it means that many citizens still can't park their bikes in official spots.

Soren hopes that his map will be used by those campaigning for more bike parking locations to identify those areas that need more bike parking spots.

Copenhagen Bike Parking Map

________________

Running & Cycling Apps with Google Maps

Afstand Meten

Dutch website Afstand Meten allows joggers and cyclists to create and save routes using Google Maps. The app is available on the desktop and for the Android market and iPhones.

Using Afstand Meten users can create new tracks or search for tracks created by other users. When searching for saved tracks you can refine the search by the 'most viewed', the 'shortest distances' or 'the longest distances'.

Cycle Routes UK

Cycle Routes UK is a cycle routes planner for UK cyclists. Using Cycle Routes UK users can search for cycling routes, add their own routes and comment and rate cycling routes.

Each route is displayed on a Google Map. Alongside the map of the route Cycling Routes UK displays the length, difficulty, the estimated duration and an estimation of calories burned.

________________

Tracking Bike Accidents with Google Maps

San Francisco Bike Accident Tracker 2.0

The Bay Citizen has improved their Google Map of bike accidents in the Bay Area. The map now includes five years of bike accident statistics for the whole Bay Area.

Cyclists can use the map to find out where accident hot-spots are located. It is also possible to filter the data shown on the map by date, road conditions and accident type.

As well as displaying the accident data with Google Maps the Bay Citizen has also created a series of charts exploring bike accidents in the Bay Area.

________________

San Francisco Bike Routes on Google Maps

San Francisco BikeMapper

The San Francisco BikeMapper uses Google Maps to provide biking directions using all existing Class I, II and III bike routes in San Francisco, southern Marin County and northern San Mateo County.

Using the BikeMapper it is possible to find the best bike route for your trip with turn-by-turn directions. To get directions you just need to enter your starting point and destination. You can also select to get the shortest bike friendly route or, importantly for hilly San Francisco, the flattest bike friendly route.

The results of your search are then displayed on the map and the turn-by-turn directions are listed in the map sidebar. Details of the route are also provided, such as the length of the journey, the estimated time and the carbon emissions saved.

_________________

Brazilian Bike Routes on Google Maps

En Vou de Bike

En Vou de Bike is a Brazilian bike route generator with some nice features.

En Vou de Bike uses Google Maps to provide bike directions. To add a starting point to the map you can just drag the green bike icon onto the map. To add your destination you can drag the red 'pare' icon to the location you wish to end up.

Your route is then calculated and displayed on the map and the directions are shown in the map sidebar. Each route generated is saved and you can browse the already generated routes on the Mapas e Rotas.

_________________

Track Bike Thieves with Google Maps

SpyLamp

The SpyLamp is a covert bicycle tracker disguised as a functioning tail light. Incorporating a GPS unit and a motion sensor the SpyLamp is able to detect if your bike has been stolen and send you a warning.

If the SpyLamp detects movement it will send you a text message. You can then track your bike on Google Maps and inform the police of its location.

The SpyLamp website has a demo map so you can see what the Google Map tracker looks like in practice (worryingly the demo thief seems to live just around the corner from my house).

Via: The Guardian

________________

Google Maps and Dynamic Canvas Markers

London Cycle Hire Map

This Google Map shows the number of bikes available at each of the docking stations in the London Cycle Hire scheme.

Probably the most impressive thins about this map is the HTML5 canvas map markers. The markers on the map are custom overlays drawn using the canvas element. Drawing the markers rather than using static images allows the markers to visually represent the number of cycles available.

As well as indicating the location of a cycle station, each marker visually represents the station capacity (volume of the marker) and available cycles (amount of marker filled with red). The markers are redrawn every minute to show in near real-time the number of bikes available.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

______________

Cycle the Alps with Street View

Cycling the Alps

Cycling the Alps is a Google Map with a lot of information and some very nice features for anyone who is interested in cycling the Alps.

The application has featured on Google Maps Mania in the past but has recently added some nice Street View tours using the Directions Map widget wizard.

If you fancy a relaxing virtual Sunday cycle ride through the Alps then check out these two trips:

Galbier
Bonette

________________

New Orleans Cycling on Google Maps

NolaCycle Data Entry Map

This Google Map displays data collected and digitized by volunteers for the NolaCycle Bike Map Project in New Orleans.

The map shows useful information for cyclists about the streets of New Orleans. Roads on the map are colored to indicate road quality, road width and traffic speed. Using the map cyclists can tell at a glance which roads are better for cyclists and which roads are probably best avoided.

I think there are plans to use the collected data to create a map of recommended routes. The data could also be used to create a trip planner with cycling directions avoiding the red roads on the map.

________________

Stockholm Bike Directions on Google Maps

Cykelreseplaneraren

This bicycle trip planner for Stockholm uses a combination of Google Maps and custom map tiles to provide cycling directions in the Swedish capital.

To use the route planner you just need to add a starting location and a destination. The best cycling route for your journey will then be displayed on the map and the directions listed in the map sidebar.

It is possible to add a number of other layers to the map, including a layer showing cycle paths in the city, bike parking locations and places with cycle pumps.

________________

Google Maps Bike Route Reporting System

Meldsysteem Bewegwijzering Fietsroutenetwerken

This Google Maps Mashup wins the Longest Name of the Year Award. Luckily it also qualifies for the award for most useful Google Maps Mashup for Dutch Cyclists.

Meldsysteem Bewegwijzering Fietsroutenetwerken is a Google Maps based system for reporting problems on bicycle routes in the Netherlands. The map uses shape files from the Landelijk Fietsplaform (National Bicycle Platform) to automatically determine where a report should be sent. When a user makes a report the right maintenance authority will get the report. The authority can also use the system to report when/if the reported problem will be fixed.

It is possible for any website or blog to embed the system using an embeddable widget.

The reporting system was created using GeoStart a product of SWIS.

_____________

AR Application for London Cycle Hire

London Tube

London Tube is an iPhone application that allows you to search for the nearest London Underground stations in augmented reality.

London Tube also lets you download (for a small fee) other points of interest databases to the application. These include Food & Drink, Leisure, Attractions and Accommodation. Using London Tube you can then locate all the nearby points of interest that you have downloaded on Google Maps and through the Augmented Reality view.

The London Cycle Hire (TfL) docking stations have just been added to the Leisure point of information database. Now if you download the Leisure POI's you can locate the nearest Cycle Hire docking stations to your present location. You can either view the nearest docking stations on Google Maps or view them in augmented reality.

In the augmented reality view the iPhone vertical position will give you a 360-degree view of all docking stations near your location, updated in real time as you walk the streets. The iPhone horizontal position will display a list of all the nearest docking stations. When a docking station is selected, a red arrow (compass) is displayed to show the direction and the distance to that point.

_____________

London's Cycle Scheme on Google Maps

Barclays Cycle Hire Map

London's new cycle hire scheme started today. 5,000 bicycles are available for hire from around 400 special docking stations around the UK capital. Transport for London have produced this Google Map showing the location of the docking stations.

You can search for docking stations by address or just zoom the map to a location. If you click on a map marker you can get live data about the number of bikes currently available at that station.

Nestoria

Real estate website Nestoria think that a property's proximity to cycle hire stations might play a key role in finding your next home. As such, from today you can find all of the central London cycle hire stations on Nestoria.

If you search for property in London you can now view all the cycle stations near a property on a Google Map.

London Cycle Stations Map

I created this map of the cycle hire stations myself for this Fusion Tables tutorial. I've now added the locations of bike shops to the map. So if you don't want to hire a bike you can buy one instead.

The only other map I'm aware of is the Cycle Hire App for the iPhone. The app uses OpenStreetMaps.

London's Cycle Scheme on Google Maps

London Cycle Stations Map

On the 30th July London is launching a Cycle Hire scheme. Under the scheme people will be able to hire bikes from 400 docking stations situated throughout the capital.

Transport for London are preparing a Google Map showing the location of the 400 docking stations. TfL say the map will go live on the 30th July (at the moment the map is empty). If you can't wait until then check out the map I created for this Fusion Tables tutorial.

The only other map I'm aware of is the planned Cycle Hire App for the iPhone. The app will use OpenStreetMaps when it launches.

_____________

Tour de France Google Maps Challenge

My Tracks Tour

The Tour de France starts tomorrow and if you are up for the challenge you can build your own Google Maps Mashup showing the real-time location of all 9 riders in the HTC/Columbia Professional Cycling team.

HTC/Columbia Professional Cycling team, HTC and SRM, have collaborated with Google to make available an API that will enable developers to build web applications that can display the location of all 9 riders on a Google Map along with their telemetry (power, heart rate, cadence, speed).

HTC has supplied the team with phones that read ANT+ wireless sensors. The phones running the Android App called My Tracks will read this data and transmit it to Google's Servers. Google's servers will then push out the data via a publicly available read only API.

________________

GPS for your Bike

Cyclemeter

Cyclemeter is an iPhone application for tracking, visualising and sharing your bike rides. The application uses Google Maps to display your routes and all your recorded data can be exported to Google Maps, GPX or KML.

Using the application you can track your bike rides with Google Maps. If you follow a previously saved route the map displays mile markers along your route and you can use the application to race against your own times on the route in real-time.

Following a route your current position is shown on the map, as is your location on your best ride, your location on your worst ride and your location on your median ride. Therefore at all times you are able to judge your current ride against previous attempts.

Via: Mapperz

________________

Bay Area Bike Routes on Google Maps

Bay Area Rides

Bay Area Rides is a website of (mostly) mountain bike ride descriptions around the San Francisco Bay Area. The site uses Google Maps to display the locations of all rides and to show detailed ride routes.

Users of Bay Area Rides can browse for rides via a Google Map showing all the trails or search by specific bay area. Once you select an individual bike trail you will be taken to a dedicated page with a Google Map of the route, an elevation chart and a detailed description of the ride's length and difficulty.

Users of Bay Area Rides can download the GPX track for each bike trail.

________________

Biiking Directions in the Google Maps API

Biking Directions have been added to the Google Maps API v3. The BicyclingLayer class allows map developers to add information about bike trails, lanes and recommended roads for bicyling onto a Google Map.



Globe Bikes is already taking advantage of this addition to the API by placing a simple biking directions gadget on their website. The biking directions gadget can easily be added to any website to give users the ability to find biking routes to any set location.

Biking Directions for Mobile
Biking directions are also now available on mobile. Android phone owners can now plan out a biking route directly from their phones.

In addition to getting customized routes, you can also turn on the Bicycling layer to see dedicated bike-only trails (dark green), roads with bike lanes (light green), or roads that are good for biking but lack a dedicated lane (dashed green).


Via: Google LatLong

________________

Charity Bike Ride Tracked with Google Maps

Biking for Kids in India

Lauren Brown is currently cycling across the U.S., from San Luis Obispo, CA to Washington, D. C.. During his epic journey Lauren will be raising funds to help rural children in India attend nine Methodist schools in Andhra Pradesh, India.

Lauren is tracking his journey using Spot. Spot is a GPS messenger that allows you to send and save your location and track your progress in near real time using Google Maps.

Lauren's Spot map shows his real-time location on Google Maps. At the time of writing Lauren is approaching Flagstaff in Arizona.

Via: Mibazaar

________________