Start Hoofing With New Google Maps Feature: Walking Directions
“Searching for an innovative way to save fuel? Check out walking, brought to you by Google Maps.”
Google Maps today expanded its walking directions feature to the public, which it tested earlier this month through a limited number of users and is now rolled out to all US locations earlier this morning, according to the Google LatLong blog.
Perhaps the most important detail is that the tool is not all that wise. The walking directions ignore one-way streets and traffic flows, but “we do not always know if a street has a sidewalk, or if there is actually a special pedestrian bridge for crossing a busy street,” admitted Andy Schwerin on the LatLong Blog.
Google Maps tries to give pedestrians the most direct and flat route possible. As Google itself acknowledges, the Maps database does not currently have a lot of information about sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, or if a specific street is simply too busy to cross. They are, however, working on improving these aspects of their maps.
“There are still a lot of pedestrian pathways we are not aware about, and they might save you some time if you find them.”
Google says you can only get walking directions for 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) or less the walking directions option will appear. “We will try to find you a route that is direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them,” the blog posting says.
The walking directions feature though in beta stage, warns users to “use caution when walking in unfamiliar areas,” but it already knows not to send people on certain roads. If getting from point A to point B includes hopping on the interstate highway, for example, Google would not even offer walking directions.
With half of the world’s population now living in cities, walking directions will be very helpful to a lot of people. Further, walking directions should also fix problems like the one the Sydney Morning Herald reported in 2007, where Google Maps sent people on an 18 minute drive over a $3 toll bridge to go essentially across the street. It would appear one-way streets tripped up the mapping application and caused the expensive route.
Currently, Google is the only mapping service that offers walking directions. Ask.com used to offer walking directions, but that feature went away when Ask migrated away from its own mapping platform to Microsoft’s Virtual Earth three weeks ago.
While Microsoft’s Virtual Earth updated its imagery with another major (14 terabyte) update today, it is routing functions have not seen any updates lately. In terms of overall functionality and user interface design, it is very much on par with Google Maps (and, in terms of its imagery, often much better than Google Maps). However, it never quite achieved the popularity of Google Maps.
The walking directions are currently only available through the web version of Google Maps. As of now, you can not choose them in the iPhone Maps application, though that would obviously be a very useful feature to add and hopefully Apple and Google will do so soon.
This could be a boon for recent college graduates wanting to backpack and figure things out. Take some time off. Take the eight-day walk from Paris to Berlin. If you are gainfully employed, grab your canvas bags and walk to the grocery store.
Also, you can use Google’s walking directions to help earn money for charity. Google has a program running through October 25 where people who complete a 15-week “Walk for Good” program can vote for a charity to share a $100,000 contribution from the company.
Google’s walking directions remain technically in beta, and improvements should continue to occur over time.