Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Map Your Route

I was inspired to do this project when I read about a similar one from Boston. It is very basic and simple, but at the same time a powerful tool. Follow the instructions and map your route. Tell all your cycling friends as well and hopefully with the information we generate we can give some proper ideas to the city about where we want our bike lanes to be.

It should just take you a minute or two to map your routes. You have my word. Please note, if you rode twice in a day (for example morning commute to work; afternoon commute home) please map each leg as a separate ride.

1. Go to: http://maps.google.com/

2. Click Sign in located in the upper right corner

3. Login with the following information

* Username: Torontobikemap
* Password: bikemaps

If you are already signed in with a personal gmail account, please logout and re-sign in using the above information.

4. Click the My Maps tab located under "Google".

5. Click the Create New Map button located under the My Maps tab.

6. An input box will appear.

* In the Title box, please write your full name, date of ride, and start time of the first one-way leg of your ride.

* Example: John Doe, 8/14, 5:45 AM.

* In the Description box, please write a current email address and the purpose of the ride, i.e. commute to job, errands, social, fun/exercise, work (messenger, courier)

* Example: johndoe@AOL.com ,commute to work.

7. You are now ready to trace your route.

* To Zoom in, click "+"
* To Start, single click the draw a line tool the upper left corner of the map. Single click on the map location corresponding to your ride origin.
* To Change directions, single click along the intersections.
* To Finish double click on the map location corresponding to destination.
* To Edit after saving, hover the "hand" symbol over the route. When the route appears click and click once where you want to make edits.

8. After double clicking, an input box will appear. Please enter the reason you chose this route (i.e. most direct, most scenic, fewest cars, safest.) and/or anything else you want to share with us.

9. Click the Save button.

10. If you rode twice in the day, please go to #5 above and repeat to trace the second or return ride.

Hopefully this will help the city help cyclists better. Please map your route and spread the word. Thanks

Derek

6 comments:

Tino said...

Nice work indeed. cool.

Anonymous said...

interesting. it looks like Google maps is doing basically the same as all the other route mapping sites out there, including:

bikely.com
veloroutes.org
gmaps-pedometer.com

except without elevation, but an easier interface. may the best map site win.

herb

Wes said...

Done and done! :)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations for your blog.
Gail thinks you are hilarious and a good blog-writer. Keep those blog entries going.
Greetings from Granada -EspaƱa-!

Tino said...

Gracias Anontio & Gail.
Somos muchos que participan ...

En todo caso, gracias por la visita.

Anonymous said...

What is really cool is looking at other routes using the "Street View" feature. Not all major cities are mapped yet, but google plans on doing the whole country!