I’ve tried Google’s bike directions, and they’re pretty darn good. There is not much chance I could reach a hundredth as many people, even if somehow my directions were marginally better. I’ve been using “Report a Problem” like a fiend, and I just hope that someone in Mountain View (or Bangalore?) will get to my suggestions sometime this year.

I have submitted lots of corrections for my area. Based on my experience, Google makes fixes that have to do with automobile routes quickly, usually within a week. They don’t seem to be in as much of a hurry when it comes to bike and pedestrian routes. I submitted information about some pedestrian walkways and stairways in the Oakland hill. Not many people know about these, but they’re documented in the printed “Walk Oakland!” map, and most of them are visible on aerial photographs. Google did add them eventually, but it took them about a month.

They’ve got lots of fixes to make:

• Did you know you can ride across the Bay on the same route the ferry takes?
• Care to ride your bike up and down some stairs in the Berkeley hills?
• No one wants you biking through the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (besides, the gate is usually locked).

Don’t expect the “beta” notice to go away anytime soon. Walking directions have been in beta for what, three or four years now?

It’s been fun learning about python, javascript, etc., but I think I need to devote more energy to my real passion (and vocation) as a hydrologist and water policy analyst.

My favorite feature of the bike mapper was a snippet of code that produced the following text based on your route:

By riding your bike for this 1.9-mile trip, you’ll burn 95 calories, save $0.53 on gas, and prevent the emission of 3 lbs of CO₂-equivalent greenhouse gases.

I’ll go ahead and publish that in case anyone out there wants to use it. The latest Google Maps API v3 includes the Bicycle Directions features, so it would be easy enough to make a mashup that lets Google compute the directions and then gives you this info. Perhaps one could set up a site where cyclists are an eligible recipient in the voluntary carbon offset market? Hmm… there’s a thought. Get paid to ride your bike. 

http://maps.google.com/biking

You can add an overlay of bike routes by clicking “More” at the top right of the map. I can’t find a legend, but it looks like dark green is a bike route, green is a bike lane, and dotted is a signed bicycle route at least for Oakland.

The route-finder seems reasonably smart. On this trip, from my old place to the Temescal Pool, Google instantly calculates the route that it took me about a month and several tries to decide was the best. It avoids big hills by taking Linda Avenue, which cuts through a notch in the hills, and minimizes the time you spend on Broadway with its traffic.

A few problems are immediately apparent. The walking trails around Lake Merritt are not really suited for bikes, nor are they identified as bike lanes by the City of Oakland, nor in the East Bay Bicycle Coalition’s map. I suspect that many, many users will contribute corrections, and with Google’s ability to “release and iterate”, these problems will get slowly fixed.

http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/MySQL_vs_PostgreSQL

Lots of terminology I don’t quite understand, and probably don’t need to, but some good nuggets of information.

ESRI has been around seemingly forever (founded 1969), has a large and generous user community, conferences, customer support, annual conferences… and their software has a big price tag. They do have a grants program, and it’s great. I know many nonprofits who received ESRI software for free or at a big discount.

But choice is good. And there are increasingly more choices that are free and open source. It’s hard to keep tabs on what is out there, what the various packages do, and their strengths and limitations. I’ve compiled a few notes on a few of the more well-known open-source GIS programs below.

GDAL/OGR

GDAL stands for Geospatial Data Abstraction Library. When you download it, you also get a copy of OGR, which stands for itself, OGR Simple Features Library. (Apparently, it used to stand for something else years ago…)

GDAL is a translator library for raster geospatial data formats that is released under an X/MIT style Open Source license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats. It also comes with a variety of useful commandline utilities for data translation and processing. The NEWS page describes the November 2009 GDAL/OGR 1.6.3 release.

The related OGR library (which lives within the GDAL source tree) provides a similar capability for simple features vector data. I’ve used OGR in the past to convert GML files to shapefiles when I was experimenting with OpenStreetMap data, and it worked like a charm.

If you want to use these tools on Windows or Linux, you grab the package called FWTools, “a set of Open Source GIS binaries for Windows (win32) and Linux (x86 32bit) systems produced by Frank Warmerdam (FW).” With it you get a bunch of useful utilities for working with different GIS files. In my experience, these are useful *if* you already know what you are doing, and have a particular task in mind, such as: I need to re-project this satellite image from UTM coordinates into state plane coordinates so I can use it with the rest of my project data.

FWTools for Windows is distributed with Python 2.3.4, which is already quite old, released in May 27th, 2004. This makes me wonder how up-to-date this package is.

Also, a word of caution: If you have ESRI’s ArcGIS installed and use Python for scripting, do NOT upgrade or change your version of Python, or your ability to run ArcGIS tools via scripts will be broken.

GDAL looks especially useful to programmers, as there are bindings available in a number of different languages. My recommendation: If you are planning to write code to manipulate your geodata, look here first so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel!

GRASS

GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a Software for performing spatial analysis. It consists of more than 350 modules for processing vector (2D/3D), raster and vector data. Many interfaces to other programs in related domains like geostatistics, databases, mapserver and even other GIS software exist. It can serve as a Desktop GIS and as the backbone of a complete GIS infrastructure.

GRASS GIS

I know that this is mature software that has been around for a long time, and is used by lots of serious scientists. My impression was that it is mostly suited for raster analysis, and that its vector capabilities (for working with points, lines, and polygons) were not as well-developed.

GRASS is run from the command line, which means you have to type in text commands to do most things. There are a few different GUIs available, JGrass, and qGIS. It doesn’t look like JGrass is very well-developed or has a large userbase. qGIS may be the way to go here.

Here is a 34-page document called GRASS GIS in a Nutshell from 2005.

The latest manual (version 7) has the page, Intro vector map processing and network analysis, which describes working with lines. The plus: it seems fully capable of managing network topology, intelligently dealing with edges and nodes. The minus: the manual text is dense, and difficult to understand.

Some information about working with vectors from section 6.1 that makes it sound like a potentially good tool (ability to bring in *many* formats, and ability to create topologies:

Vector maps can be imported from various sources such as ArcInfo-Coverages, CSV, DGN, SHAPEfiles, GML, MapInfo, MySQL, ODBC, OGDI, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, S57, SDTS, TIGER, UK .NTF,and VRT. The module for importing vector maps is v.in.ogr. The input ?dsn? (data source name) parameter can be a file, a directory or a database connection, depending on the data format. As GRASS is a topological GIS, non-topological Simple Feature data such as SHAPE files are transformed into a topological representation upon import. Data quality is verified during the import, and vector features which violate topological conditions are stored in a separate layer for later inspection. For more details please refer to the manual page of v.in.ogr.

It looks like the easiest way to learn about GRASS is to buy a copy of the GRASS book. (Doesn’t look like you can read it online anywhere…)

Quantum GIS

Quantum GIS

Quantum GIS or qQIS, looks like it’s under very active development, with revisions being pushed out frequently. As of December 2009, it’s on version 1.30. (I was hesitant to install it on my office desktop when the version number was less than 1!)

Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). It runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities.

One of its strenghts is that it upports a number of different data formats (and can do on-the-fly projection!):

• spatially-enabled PostgreSQL tables using PostGIS and SpatiaLite
• most vector formats supported by the OGR library*, including ESRI shapefiles, MapInfo, SDTS and GML
• raster formats supported by the GDAL library*, such as digital elevation models, aerial photography or landsat imagery,GRASS locations and mapsets
• online spatial data served as OGC-compliant WMS or WFS

Does it support the creation and editing of topologies? Seems like the answer is no, or at least I can’t find any references to the word “topology” in the documentation. But perhaps, because of the linkage with GRASS, it can do this? I need to investigate further to find out.

OSGeo

OSGeo is the Open Source Geospatial Foundation, and their website is a portal of information and links to many different applications, a number of which are listed here. The foundation “is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. The foundation provides financial, organizational and legal support to the broader open source geospatial community.”

What we’re interested in is the software OSGeo4W. They maintain a “binary distribution”, which is a bundle of programs from the OSGeo family. For Windows users, there is OSGeo4W, “a windows based stack of GeoFOSS which is based upon cygwin.”

I tried OSGeo4W, and my experience was a disaster. I tried installing it back in August, but qGIS did not work. I kept getting cryptic error messages. Spent a few hours trying again, looking for workarounds, etc. Eventually decided to throw in the towel, but was unable to un-install it. It ended up messing up my installation of Python, and leaving a few hundred megabytes of files. Not sure what will happen if I just delete all of these… Oh well, you can not set your expectations too high for free software developed by volunteers. I hand it to the developers for their work on this important, and no doubt challenging project. But it’s not quite ready for prime time.

Update: I’ve since tried installing cygwin, and never got it to work on my computer. Perhaps that is the reason why OSGeo4W never worked either.

For Linux users, the project to compile all the installers in one place looks a little less well-focused. If you’re using the Debian flavor of Linux, there is the DebianGIS project, which enables Debian users to install GRASS, GDAL, and Proj4.

PostGIS

PostGIS is software that lets you turn a PostgreSQL database into a GIS database. A whole bunch of different programs can use PostGIS as a “backend”, i.e. a place to store the geodata. The list includes open-source packages like qGIS, GRASS, and uDig, but also commercial packages like ArcGIS and MapInfo.

In fact, the wikipedia article on PostGIS is a nice list of different current open-source GIS programs.

Two reasons for us to be interested in this package. First, PostgreSQL is commonly used as a web database, perhaps second to MySQL, so it is ready to use for a web project. Second, there is an open-source module called pgRouting for calculating directions.

uDig

From the wikipedia article on uDig:

uDig is a GIS software program produced by a community led by Canadian-based consulting company Refractions Research. It is based on the Eclipse platform and features full layered Open Source GIS. It is written in Java and released under GNU Lesser General Public License.

uDig can use GRASS for complex vector operations and also embeds JGRASS and specialized hydrology tools from the Horton Machine. It supports shapefiles, PostGIS, WMS, and many other data sources natively.

MapWindow

The MapWindow application is a free, extensible, geographic information system (GIS) that can be used as an alternative desktop GIS, to distribute data to others, or to develop and distribute custom spatial data analyses.

Based on the documentation here, it looks like it is only capable of handling shapefiles, but it looks like it has decent capabilities for editing vector geometry and attribute tables. There is no mention of more advanced capabilities like topology or networks, or linking to external data.

Conclusion: MapWindow might be worthwhile for simple editing of shapefiles on your local hard drive. Probably not capable enough for our needs.

MapServer

MapServer is a software package for map rendering. It lets you create your own web mapping service. Of limited use for the bike mapper project, as we are simply displaying limited amounts of route data on top of Google Maps, and don’t need to render our own basemaps.

Etc.

There is much more out there. I’ve tried to highlight the projects that are under active development, and likely to stay useful in the future, or powerful enough to handle real tasks (rather than just being prototypes or proofs-of-concept. Drop me a line or leave a comment if you know of other programs/resources that might be helpful in the Bike Mapper project.

Others worth looking in to?

• gvSIG
• Kosmo
• OpenJump
• TerraView

The grand-pappy of bike route planners in the US, it was developed by a called GeoPerception for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. It covers four counties in Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernadino, and Riverside. GeoPerception went out of business, and the hosting responsibilities were taken over by a company called Surf Consulting, which appears to be a one-man shop in San Diego.

bikemetro.com

Despite the fact that the user interface looks dated, there are lots of really great features. It’s not surprising that it seems outdated — the site was developed in 2002, before the advent of the click-and-drag “slippy maps” that Google pioneered. However, most of what you’d want in a bike mapper are here in some form:

• Add start and end points by clicking map
• Set destination by address (but not intersection) or landmark (although the list is limited)
• Hill tolerance (5 levels to choose from)
• Skill level (which is a surrogate for traffic tolerance)
• Map overlays of bike paths and lanes
• Elevation profile plot

Aside from the map, I really like some of the additional outputs:

• Calories saved
• Pollution emissions avoided
• Money saved

bikemetro.com

But the application is far from perfect. Here are the elements that are not so good:

• Map is small
• Only 5 zoom levels
• Map detail is poor, only showing roads against a white background (no satellite view, topographic view, etc.)
• Printing is not great (includes lots of extraneous stuff)
• Not easy to change the start and end point (need to go back to start page)
• The option “Use Public Transit” is permanently grayed out. Looks like this was a planned feature they never got around to.

My critiques obviously come from the standpoint of a year-2009 web map user. Back in 2002, web maps weren’t that interactive, nor was anyone using Ajax.

And that’s the problem. A complex application like this can’t just be launched. It needs to be maintained and updated. There must be hundreds of miles of new roads in the four-county area in the last 7 years. Have any of these made it into the map? What about changes to the bike network? What happens to user feedback? Are peoples comments and suggestions used to improve the underlying geodata?

Lastly, it is definitely not open source. Their terms of use state that the entire thing is copyrighted, and the license agreement is long and restrictive. Is this right? Information developed by government agencies in the US is by definition public domain. Is this not so for information developed by private contractors using public money?

The minutes from a May 2008 board meeting of the Air Quality Management District give some information concerning the history and future of the bikemetro mapper. Bottom line: The District sounds disappointed that “the website has not been periodically upgraded as originally envisioned” and plans to spend $200,000 to move it over to CommuteSmart.info, a website from the 4-county transportation agencies with traffic and transit info (basically a SoCal equivalent of the Bay Area’s 511.org).

As an element of their FY 2001-02 Work Program, the MSRC [Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee] co-funded the development of a web-based bicycle routing and mapping system. GeoPerception, Inc., the developer of the BikeMetro website, was required to provide website hosting and maintenance for a period of five years. This contractual obligation ended in March 2008. Recently, the MSRC was contacted by Surf Consulting, which has been performing BikeMetro hosting and maintenance on behalf of GeoPerception since October 2005. Surf Consulting sought direction concerning the MSRC’s desires relative to the possible continued availability of BikeMetro to the South Coast’s cycling community. The cost for follow-on website hosting services has been quoted by Surf Consulting at $400.00 per month. This cost would include website hosting and minor maintenance only.

In a separate recommended action in this letter, the bicycle routing and mapping capability included in BikeMetro is currently recommended to be migrated to the regional CommuteSmart.info website under a contract to the Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC); however, this new capability is not anticipated to be available for approximately 12 months. On April 17, 2008, the MSRC considered options for continued operation of the BikeMetro website in the interim. Further details are described below in the Proposals section.

[...]

As mentioned above, the MSRC co-funded the development of a web-based bicycle routing and mapping system as an element of their FY 2001-02 Work Program. GeoPerception, Inc., the developer of the BikeMetro website, is no longer an operating business entity. While GeoPerception did make arrangements for Surf Consulting to fulfill GeoPerception’s contractual hosting requirements through March 2008, the website has not been periodically upgraded as originally envisioned. Also, higher than normal site downtime was noted in the first few months of 2006. On August 17, 2006, the MSRC considered various options for long-term viability of the BikeMetro website. Further details are described below in the Proposals section.

[...]

As stated in the Background section, it came to the attention of the MSRC that GeoPerception had ceased to function as a business entity, the site was being maintained by a third party, and the BikeMetro website had been experiencing higher than normal downtime incidences. On August 17, 2006, the MSRC considered long-term options for BikeMetro. Alternatives included terminating operation, maintaining the site in its existing form, or upgrading. The MSRC determined that an opportunity existed, not only to upgrade the site with additional functionalities and updated mapping information, but also to bring BikeMetro to the attention of a wider audience, by re-hosting the site as an element of the broader CommuteSmart.info regional website. CommuteSmart.info is administered by RCTC on behalf of the transportation commissions for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties. As an element of Phase I of their FY 2006-07 Work Program, the MSRC unanimously approved a sole-source contract with RCTC, in an amount not to exceed $200,000, to migrate BikeMetro into their CommuteSmart.info site. RCTC would be responsible for performing website upgrades, updates, hosting and maintenance.

ridesf.com bike mapper

In my first bike mapper roundup, I failed to mention John Roark’s work-in-progress, ridesf.com. Hey, nice favicon! According to John, “It is mostly useless right now since I don’t have a conflated data set that includes bike lanes and non bike lanes. It really is just a work in progress/hobby.” He’s off to a good start though. I like the clean, uncluttered design. Perhaps the biggest strength, in my opinion, is that it’s based on the open-source PostGIS, which is an extension to the PostGRE database system.

OpenStreetMap Routing Service – yournavigation.org

At last night’s SF Bike Planner meeting, I found out that you can get directions based on OpenStreetMap data. The site, launched in May 2008, is the project by the OSM user Lambertus (real name unknown) in the Netherlands. I was under the impression that the OSM data were not suitable for routing, because they don’t have enough information about turn restrictions, etc. Apparently not.

Bike Directions from yournavigation.org

On the site, you can choose different routing options like “Car”, “Heavy Goods”, or “Bicycle”. No idea what “Mofa” means… The site gives reasonable directions in the East Bay. On this route from Oakland to Richmond it routes me up the Ohlone Greenway for much of the route (good!), but up and over the hill near the Kaiser campus (bad! steep!). Not surprising as it is based on two-dimensional data. Still, it covers the whole planet (at least the parts mapped by OSM, which extends its reach daily). Impressive, but clearly still a work in progress. For example, there are no text directions yet.

There is information about YOURS (Yet Another OpenStreetMap Routing Sytem) here, including their API. Worth looking tabs on this project.

Their opinion survey found:

Of the 73 features that might influence likelihood of cycling, the following were the top 10 motivators with average scores from +0.5 to +0.8 (with a maximum possible of +1=”much more likely to cycle”):

• the route is away from traffic noise and air pollution
• the route has beautiful scenery
• the route has bicycle paths separated from traffic for the entire distance
• the route is flat
• cycling to the destination takes less time than travelling by other modes
• the distance to my destination is less than 5 km
• I can make the trip in daylight hours
• I can take my bike on the Skytrain at any time
• a 2-way off-street bike path has a reflective centre line for night and poor weather cycling
• secure indoor bike storage is available at my destination

The following were the top 10 deterrents with average scores from -0.9 to -0.6 (with a minimum possible of -1=”much less likely to cycle”):

• the route is snowy or icy
• the street has a lot of car, bus, or truck traffic
• the route has glass or debris
• vehicles drive faster than 50 km/h [30 mph]
• the risk from motorists who don’t know how to drive safely near bicycles
• the risk of injury from car-bike collisions
• it is raining
• the route has surfaces that can be slick when wet or icy when cold
• the route is not well lit after dark
• I need to carry bulky or heavy items

Additionally, and relevant to the what we’re trying to do here in the Bay Area, the survey found that “the availability of a web-based bicycle trip planning tool was a motivating factor for both current and potential cyclists.”

I think it’s relevant to ask: how much do Vancouverites’ attitudes coincide with those in the US? We are all North Americans right? We share a dependence on fossil fuels and motor vehicles for transportation. How similar would the survey results be if they were done in an American city like San Francisco or Oakland?

511.org Bike Maper

Comments on the general bike mapper (http://bicycling.511.org/bikemapper.htm)

1. Why only allow topographic map view? (Please include Satellite, Map, street view, traffic, etc.)

2. Bike routes polylines should either be narrower or have some transparency, so that the user can read street names underneath)

3. When using the search feature, should allow the user to find more than one location and place more than a single map marker.

4. Would be nice to be able to save favorite locations.

5. Additional information would be of great use to cyclists in planning routes: e.g. route attributes such as street name, lane width, presence of shoulder, speed limit, daily average vehicle counts, known road hazards (EBBC & SFBC both have such databases).

6. There is no indication of who to contact for more information, and only the small suggestions button at the side for giving feedback or offering suggestions. There is a huge trove of knowledge with the cyclists and commuters who ride these routes every day. I would suggest tapping into this “wisdom of the crowd” to improve the map. This is also a way of leveraging limited funds.

7. I see the symbol SM or TM after BikeMapper in several locations. Has MTC or BAAQMD actually registered a trademark or service mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office? I was under the impression that under US law, the information generated and published by government agencies is in the public domain, and that government is not eligible to hold trademarks.

Comments on the Route Builder Tool (http://mtcgis.mtc.ca.gov/bikemapper/default_tripPlanner.htm)

Great! Thank you! Congratulations!  I am so excited to finally see this. There is a lot of good functionality built into this, and some good route data. However, I see this as more of a “proof of concept” at this point, and not something that really helps cyclists. Here are my specific comments:

1. The routes that it chooses are poor, and so not very useful.

• It routes me onto busy streets.
• It routes me over steep hills.
• It should provide turn-by-turn text directions, such as “Left on 34th Street, 0.2 miles”

2. Please consider making the map markers “draggable”, so that the user can change their start or end point. This functionality is built into the Google Maps API.

3. Please consider allowing the user to enter more than two points. I.e. Allow a multi-point itinerary.

4. Once you have entered a start or end point, clicking “Place Route Markers” deletes both of them, when maybe you want to keep one. Consider changing this so the user can remove one or the other, and does not have to start over from scratch.

5. After searching for a location, a marker is placed on the map, but then the user has to click again to add a start or end point for the route. The map should allow the user to convert the search result marker into the route start point or end point.

6. The finished route polyline covers up the bike route overlay, so you can’t tell what type of route you’re on (e.g. bike lane, path, on-street).

7. Many cyclists prefer taking a slightly longer route if it is on roads with less traffic. You should offer that option. Additional research has shown that many cyclists prefer to avoid busy streets due to health concerns over air quality (see for example, http://www.cher.ubc.ca/cyclingincities/default.htm).

8. There has been no publicity or outreach that I have seen. Consider following Google’s model “release and iterate” – do a public release of the beta, which you have done, and then solicit opinions and feedback. Again, the cycling public is a treasure trove of knowledge about these routes. You should tap into that knowledge to leverage limited agency staffing and funding.

9. Question: Does MTC have plans to make use of data from SFCTA’s recently-announced CycleTracks program (http://www.sfcta.org/content/view/666/375) to improve the bike route data? Are there any plans to expand this to the 9-county area?

I am happy to follow up with you to clarify or test out the next beta version. You’re off to a good start, and there are many of us who would like to see more!

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.

A good bike route finder for the Bay area must have two things, in my opinion: it must help you avoid busy, dangerous streets, and it must be able to route you around big hills. The shortest path between two points around here is not always very easy! Which is fine when you’re out to get some exercise and get your heart rate up. What I’m interested in really is “promoting the bicycle as an everyday means of transportation

East Bay Bike Mapper, ebmgh.com/bike.html

The prototype is here: http://ebmgh.com/bike.hml

I could certainly use help, encouragement, or feedback. Please be in touch: mheberger@gmail.com.

A group of like-minded individuals will also be getting together to discuss collaborating on an SF-area wide bike mapper. Details here:

http://groups.google.com/group/sf-bike-planner/browse_thread/thread/cc60184bd8f2fb65