ebmgh.com

Here are the websites I’ve found which give turn-by-turn directions for bikes. These sites or applications let you enter a starting point and destination, and they compute a route for you to take by bike. Some of them include options for type of route (safer or more direct) or extras like elevation profile plots.

1. http://bycycle.org/
   

   byCycle.org Bike Mapper

   One of the first “bike trip planners” to use a Google map. Covers the metro areas of Portland, Oregon and Milwaukee, Wisconsin only. Overlays all of the route data on a Google map. I especially like the fact that you can view the official bicycle route network as a map overlay, in addition to your trip’s route. An overall excellent site, but they need to get rid of the red dot floating in the middle of the map!

2. http://www.ridethecity.com/
   

   Ride the City Bike Mapper

   Launched in 2008, this site gives turn-by-turn directions, originally for New York City, but now including Chicago and Austin. Very well executed, and a clean, modern design. The only thing missing piece is that it does not include topography or hills.

3. http://www.cyclevancouver.ubc.ca/cv.aspx
   

   Cycle Vancouver Bike Mapper

   An impressive mapper/route-finder from the University of British Columbia, covering the city of Vancouver. Includes a lot of great extras such as overlays, including air pollution data. According to researchers, this is an important concern amongst the areas cyclists, and they’ve found that by taking just a one-block detour, you can significantly reduce your exposure to pollutants from cars and trucks.

4. http://www.bikemetro.com/
   Covers Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernadino and Riverside counties. Developed by the region’s public transit agency in 2002, it uses what looks like an ArcIMS web GIS interface, which have never been known for speed or ease of use. This was half a decade before Google Maps came out and revolutionized online mapping. Still a good resource, but in the words of one commenter, suffers from “clunky interface and routes aren’t linkable.”
5. http://amarpai.com/bikemap/bikemap.html
   A very nice bike route finder for the city of San Francisco, created by an individual, Amarnath Pai in his spare time. Bare-bones interface makes use of the Yahoo Maps API. Underwent a long hibernation, but appears to be back under active development.
6. http://trip.atltransit.com/
   Atlanta transit planner has a bike option. It works well although some of the options are confusing (Enter a Facility Type Adjustment Factor from 0 to 5?), and the directions read more like a bus timetable than a set of instructions. Note that this is from a non-commercial, nonprofit organization (the strap-hanger’s organization) and not the transit agency itself. There is a forum for discussing the technical features and bugs, although it doesn’t seem to have a lot of traffic.
7. http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/dyn/controller/Driving_directions
   The Michelin UK website seems to include all of Europe (!), but I suspect that their “by bike” option is similar to using Google Maps directions and clicking “Avoid Highways”. I don’t know anywhere in Europe well enough to judge how good the routes are.
8. http://www.demis.nl/home/pages/routeplanner.htm
   Bike route planner for some provinces of Holland. A short description in English on this page.

Downloadable Applications

http://bbbike.sourceforge.net/

BBBike is an information system for cyclists in Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany).It is both a downloadable application as well as a web service.Lots of features, perhaps at the tradeoff of ease of use?I’m not familiar with the geography or German to be able to say more.

http://trevor.smith.name/sfbikemap/

The S.F. Bike Map project, now defunct.The author, Trevor Smith, wrote in 2003, “The SF bike map project was originally going to a web application as part of the San Francisco Bike Coalition web site but during the shuffle of leadership over there they lost interest in it. So, I packaged up the renderer and route finder into an executable jar. It works, but isn’t the prettiest UI you’ve ever seen.” You can download the application from this page on Sourceforge.

Other Lists of Bike Mapping Resources

http://googlemapsbikethere.org/other-efforts/

Note, not all of these provide turn-by-turn directions.This site is the home of the Google Maps Bike There petition. They want Google to add “bike there” as an option on their maps, and have collected thousands of signatures.

http://www.bikeforall.net/linkcat.php?cid=153

A list of bike route-finders; there seem to be quite a few in the UK!

http://bikehacks.com/55-free-bike-route-mapping-tools/

Great list from a fun site with lots of ideas for how to “mod” your ride. Many of the online mapping resources for bikes let you do one of two things. The first set lets you draw a line on a map to show your route. These are good for estimating distance or sharing a route with friends, but are probably not much help trying to find your way. The second set lets you look at or download a map of bicycle routes.