Online Cycling Maps/Driving Directions?

Robert Uhl said:

Does anyone know of an online map site which gives directions for
cyclists? That is, which takes advantage of streets which are bike
routes, or have bike lanes, or are just-as-straight but have lower speed
limits?

Nope. However my own experience suggests that bike routes and bike
lanes are best avoided. In heavy urban traffic it seems often to be
better to ride on main arteries, though the traffic noise can be
annoying. This may or may not be true in the suburbs.

John Kane
Kingston ON

Robert Uhl said:

Does anyone know of an online map site which gives directions for
cyclists? That is, which takes advantage of streets which are bike
routes, or have bike lanes, or are just-as-straight but have lower speed
limits?

Googling for bicycle route (try "bicycle trail" for trails):

<http://www.google.com/search?q=bicycle%20route>

1st entry looks good:

<http://www.pedaling.com/>

Regards,
Randy.

John_Kane said:

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know of an online map site which gives directions for
cyclists? That is, which takes advantage of streets which are bike
routes, or have bike lanes, or are just-as-straight but have lower speed
limits?

Nope. However my own experience suggests that bike routes and bike
lanes are best avoided. In heavy urban traffic it seems often to be
better to ride on main arteries, though the traffic noise can be
annoying. This may or may not be true in the suburbs.

It's one thing to cycle on a 25 or 35 mph road in a city where traffic
may actually be blocked up a bit, but it's another thing entirely to
cycle on a 45-55 mph road in a spread-out suburb where everyone is doing
10-15 over. There's also a great deal of difference between a road wide
enough for cars to comfortably pass and one with two narrow little
lanes.

Here, at least, the bike routes are not special paths--just non-busy
roads which parallel the major arteries.

--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
My favourite movie is They Live And Let Die Hard Rain Man Without A
Face/Office Space Jam. --Hogwash McFly

Not to change the subject or anything -- Delorme would get right back into
my good graces if they had a bike route program as well as the hiking and
driving ones -- but I'd like to interject a few things if i may.

Robert Uhl <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

John_Kane said:

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know of an online map site which gives directions for
cyclists? That is, which takes advantage of streets which are bike
routes, or have bike lanes, or are just-as-straight but have lower
speed limits?

Nope. However my own experience suggests that bike routes and bike
lanes are best avoided. In heavy urban traffic it seems often to be
better to ride on main arteries, though the traffic noise can be
annoying. This may or may not be true in the suburbs.

In Manhattan, it's the main "arteries" (closer i guess to pulmonary or
hepatic arteries) where they put the bike lanes. The greenways are the
ones off on the edges where it is, actually, safer.

Quoted message said:

It's one thing to cycle on a 25 or 35 mph road in a city where traffic
may actually be blocked up a bit, but it's another thing entirely to
cycle on a 45-55 mph road in a spread-out suburb where everyone is
doing 10-15 over. There's also a great deal of difference between a
road wide enough for cars to comfortably pass and one with two narrow
little lanes.

You've just described cycling through New Jersey. There's a lot of crumply
left-over geological hill remnants and a lot of swampland with towns carved
out of it which don't quite connect to each other. The only way out is the
way through, as they say on Enterprise. 45-55 MPH roads with cars
speeding, and not only that, a choice assortment of left lane exits. But
unlike New York State, where many of the roads that go where you want to go
(the beach, etc) are Parkways which prohibit bikes, Jersey is pretty much
legal. Even the big parkway, the Garden State, has Route 9 snaking right
along with it down to the Deleware ferry. So it's eff 'em if they hit you
and eff you if you slow 'em down, that's life in the Garden State and the
reason why tramps like us were born to pedal.

In southern California we have "bike metro" - a very neat resource when
it is up (ok, it is usually up, but it's been down a couple times when
I needed it).

Their routing page lets you put in two addresses, and your ability, and
produces a map with an elevation profile. As I said, very neat:

http://www.bikemetro.com/route/routehome.asp

Quoted message said:

Their routing page lets you put in two addresses, and your ability,
and produces a map with an elevation profile. As I said, very neat:

http://www.bikemetro.com/route/routehome.asp

Now that's very cool--maybe someday they'll expand to other states.

--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
As a survival strategy, you've got to admit that being-liked-by-man
ain't too shabby. Works for dogs, cats, oxen, apples &c. Never worked
too well for wolves, bears, woolly mammoths &c. Results are not yet in
regarding kudzu and head-lice.