Putting Vancouver on the Map

The Vancouver Sun has put together a great series of 21 interactive Google Maps looking at all aspects of life in the city based on the 2006 census. Metro Vancouver Mapped uses Google Fusion Tables to create heat maps that explore answers given by residents in the 2006 census.



The maps examine the demographic differences in the city and allow you to see in which areas residents have the best educational attainment, the best commute times and the highest property values etc.



Each map is accompanied by a brief analysis of the census results.



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Meet me Halfway with Google Maps

Yellow Pages in Canada has released a useful application to help two or more people find the best place to meet.

To find a place to meet you need to enter your address and the address of the person you plan to meet. You can then select the type of venue where you wish to meet, for example a restaurant, a bar or a cafe.

Rendezview will then create a Google Map showing you the most convenient venues that you could meet (based on your selected preferences), roughly half-way between the two locations.

Rendezview

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A Seasonally Adjusted Google Map

Ottawa Pastoral has created a very nice looking Google Map to quickly find outdoor spaces of play based on your current location in Ottawa and the time of the year.

The map shows the location of outdoor spaces where you can play various sports, however, the locations shown vary according to the time of year. In the summer baseball, basketball, lawn bowling, soccer, tennis and volleyball locations are shown. If you change the map to other seasons then other sports are displayed. For example, in winter the markers change to show where you can skate and sled.

As well as showing different sports depending on the season the map also changes colour to match the season. The circular border of the map displays as an appropriate chilly blue in winter, green in spring, yellow in summer and red in the fall.

Ottawa Pastoral

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Toronto is Dangerously Trendy

Toronto is Trending

Toronto is Trending has one of the coolest welcome screens I've ever seen on a website. When you go to Toronto is Trending you are presented with a full-screen video of Toronto. Twitter speech bubbles then appear above some of the moving pedestrians in the video and follow them down the street.

If you switch to the 'map view' you can then see the latest Tweets and check-ins made in Toronto on a Google Map view of the city. The map also displays a number of hotel, ticket and package deals.

The numbered map markers let you see how many people have checked into particular venues. You can select which category of venue you wish to see displayed on the map using the icons at the top of the map.

Altogether if you want to find the most happening venues in Toronto right now then you need to visit Toronto is Trending.

Toronto’s Most Dangerous Intersections

Global Toronto has mapped out Toronto's most dangerous intersections for pedestrians. By looking at the accident history data for 1337 intersections in the city Global Toronto has been able to identify which pose the most danger to pedestrians.

Global Toronto devised an 'accident ratio' for each intersection by combining two sets of data: accidents by intersection from 2000-09 and the average daily pedestrian head-counts at each intersection.

The Google Map shows in red the intersections that have the highest accident ratio.

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The Real-Time Toronto Transit Map

TOTransit

TOTransit displays the real-time position of Toronto's streetcars on a Google Map.

You can select which routes you want to view on the map in real-time. The marker for each streetcar displays its current direction and if you mouse-over a marker you can view the streetcar's number.

The streetcars' positions are updated every ten seconds.

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Canadian Gun Ownership Google Map

Global News: Gun Registry Map

Global News has used Google Fusion Tables to create this Google Map of registered gun licences in Canada.

The heat map shows the number of guns registered in an area. If you click on the map you can view details on the population size, the number of registered gun licences and the rate of licences per every 1,000 people.

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Canadian Elections on Google Maps

Canada's General Election is fast approaching (May 2nd) and the Google Maps are coming thick and fast.

The Gazette: Get to Know Your Candidate

If you want to know which candidates are standing in your area then use this Google Map from the Montreal Gazette.

To find out who your electoral candidates are just click on the map or select your riding from a drop-down menu. The candidates standing in your area are then listed below the map.

The map also includes an option to explore the ridings by gender. If you select this option you can view how many female candidates are standing in each riding in Canada.

2008 Election Results

This Google Map from cyberpresse lets you explore the 2008 election results. If you select your district from the drop-down menu you can view the results and the turn-out percentage.

Political Financing Map

Cyberpresse has also created this Google Map that lets you explore political donations to the political parties.

When you click on a dot, an information window will appear with the name of a donor, the date a contribution was made, the donation amount, the party to which this donation was made and the riding association or candidate that received the donation.

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The Pothole Twitter Map

PG Pothole

The British may have #UKSnow but the residents of Prince George, British Columbia have PG Pothole. PG Pothole works on a similar principal to the #UKSnow map but, instead of mapping Tweets about snow, it maps massages reporting potholes.

To add a pothole to this Google Map all you need to do is add the hashtag #pgpotholes to a Tweet. If the tweet is geotagged or includes an address then it will appear on the map. The result, hopefully, will be a great guide for the drivers of Prince George as to which roads to avoid when driving across town.

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Street View in Ads

The Canadian Tourism Commission and their creative agency DDB Canada are using Google Maps Street View in an online advertising campaign. The online ads use Street View to promote Canadian cities and tourist attractions.



You can view an example of one of the ads in this mock-up of The Guardian website. The ad in the example zooms in on Montreal on Google Maps before opening up a fully interactive Street View of Rue Bonsecours.

Each online ad ends by directing users to additional location-specific information on the Keep Exploring campaign site where they can further explore what each destination has to offer.

The campaign is currently running in Germany, France and the UK.

Via: Street View Funny

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Track Your Canadian MP on Google Maps

RepresentMe

If you live in Ottawa, Canada then RepresentMe can help you find out who your elected representative is and what they've done lately.

When you enter your postcode RepresentMe will display your electoral ward on a Google Map and tell you who your Member of Parliament, Member of Provincial Parliament and City Councillor are.

RepresentMe also displays the recent activity of your elected representatives, including their recent voting record and mentions in press articles.

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Your Trash on a Google Map

VanTrash

If you live in Vancouver you now have no excuse for forgetting to put out your trash for collection. The city have developed this Google Maps mashup to inform residents about when their trash will be collected.

The map shows the regions for the city's trash pick-ups. If you click on a region you can then download the pick-up dates to your Google calendar or to Outlook. It is also possible to set up Twitter or email reminders informing you to put your trash out the night before the collection is due.

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Google Map of Canadian Baby Names

The OpenFile - Baby File

Canada's new collaborative news site OpenFile has created a number of Google Maps displaying the most popular baby names in Toronto, Ottawa, and Hamilton-Niagara (2005-2009).

On each of the maps you can click on a postal area and view the top five baby names for boys and girls in the area. Some areas have fewer than five boys' or girls' names, and some have none of either. These areas tend to be either non-residential or low-population districts, or simply have no names that are more popular than others.

Accompanying the maps are a couple of interesting articles 'Why Tenzin reigns in Parkdale' and 'Why Gurleen, and Jayden, and Muhammad, and Joshua rule in Malton'.

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Community News on Google Maps

OpenFile

OpenFile is a new collaborative community news site for Canada. Anyone can submit a story to OpenFile and reporters are then assigned to the story. However anyone can add comments, images, video and helpful links to the story.

Currently OpenFile covers four cities: Vancouver, Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa. The dedicated page for each city includes a Google Map that shows the location of the user submitted stories.

If you select any of the map markers you can then click through to read the story in full. The web page for each story also includes a smaller Google Map highlighting the location of the story.

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911 on Google Maps

Incident1

Incident1 uses Google Maps to plot police, fire, and emergency incidents from around the nation. The map shows the most recent incidents for your area.

Incident1 shows data from multiple agencies on one map, and it lets you search by zip code and region.

Gothamist NYC Incident Map

The Gothamist uses Google Maps to plot the locations of crimes, fires, accidents and other incidents in New York City. Think of it as police scanner chat.. mapped. Map pins include police, fire and 'exclamation point signs'.

IncidentLog

If you live in New England you can view the latest New England incidents on this Google Map. You can search the map by state, city or street name.

Seattle 911 Calls

This site uses live data publicly available on the Seattle Fire Dept. web site to show Seattle 911 calls live on Google Maps.

Fire Incident Map
The City of Nanaimo have integrated their Fire Incident Report with Google Maps. This allows the citizens of Nanaimo (or anyone else) to query the city’s Fire Incident Report and see the results on a map. The map shows the location of incidents and the apparatus that the fire deployment deployed.

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Real-Time Snow Ploughs on Google Maps

The City of Calgary - Road Conditions Map

The City of Calgary are using the Google Maps API with custom map tiles to provide citizens with the latest road conditions in the city.

The map shows the priority routes in the city for snow ploughing and even shows the real-time locations of the city's snow ploughs. It is also possible to view the city's traffic cams so you can check for yourself that the roads have been ploughed.

The controls at the top of the map allow the user to zoom in and out and pan the map.

Hat-tip: Mapperz

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Real-Time Streetcars on Google Maps

Where is my Streetcar?

This Google Map shows the real-time position of streetcars in Toronto.

Using the map you can find out how long you will have to wait for a streetcar at any of the city's stops. You can select your stop from a drop-down menu at the top of the map and you can choose to view either westbound or southbound streetcars or both.

The real-time position of the streetcars are then displayed on the map with arrows that display their direction of travel. The map uses City of Toronto Open Data, using feeds provided by NextBus and the TTC.

The whole project is open source, so if you think you can improve the map you can view and edit the source.

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The Sally Army on Google Maps

Fill the Kettle

The Canadian Salvation Army Christmas Kettle Campaign is a fundraising effort that occurs each year during the Christmas season. Kettles are found in nearly 2000 locations across Canada and are an opportunity for the public to donate whatever funds they can to support the work of The Salvation Army.

This year the Salvation Army have created a Google Map showing the location of the nearly 2000 Kettle locations across Canada. Using the map you can find the nearest kettle to your location. And, if there isn't a kettle nearby, you can always donate online.

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Toronto Video Guide on Google Maps

My City Lives

Here is your personal video guide to the city of Toronto. My City Lives is a platform that allows people in Toronto to share their experiences of the city’s public spaces and organizations by posting videos to a Google Map.

The submitted videos are represented on the map by thumbnail images of the videos. To watch a video you just have to click its thumbnail.

It is possible to refine the videos shown on the map by 'Most Viewed', 'Food', 'Coffee', 'Date Ideas', 'Missed in Connection' and 'Nuit Blanche'. It is also possible to refine the results by a custom search.

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Canada's Afghan War Dead on Google Maps

Canada’s Military Fatalities in Afghanistan

Earlier this week we featured Patrick Cain's Second World War Casualty Map of Toronto. Now David Erwin, of Canadian TV show the Agenda, has created a Google Map of Canada’s military fatalities in Afghanistan.

The map shows the home locations of the 152 soldiers killed in Afghanistan and reveals that relative to the population, four times as many soldiers from rural Canada have been killed in Afghanistan as those from urban Canada.

On Remembrance Day (today) the map will feature in Agenda. The programme will be examining if this map reveals that there are two Canadas when it comes to the Afghan mission.

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Local Reviews on Google Maps

Shownto.me

This Google Map based local search engine displays information from third party services such as Yelp, Gowalla, Yellowpages, Mapquest and Foursquare.

Using the map it is possible to search for local businesses, for example, pizza in San Francisco. When you undertake a search you can choose what type of business you wish to find and which third party service you wish to see results from. The results are then displayed on the map.

If you click on any of the returned map markers you can click through to read the information, tips and reviews provided by the chosen service. For example, if you select Foursquare you can click through to read the tips provided by Foursquare users.

If you live in Ottawa you can also use the 'Places' drop-down menu to view many local services, such as police stations, schools, sports venues and municipal buildings. In California a lot of 'Places' data from http://data.ca.gov/ and http://datacalifornia.com/ is also available. And in the USA as a whole there are several million data points, e.g libraries, Starbucks, schools, POIs and other businesses)

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