Google Maps is wonderful and I use it nearly every day for a wide variety of things. But it annoys me that Google Maps tells me to Swim across the atlantic ocean to get from New York to Paris ... BUT ... it can't tell me to walk across Market Street in San Francisco.
Tomorrow, I'm going to the Digital Be-In in San Francisco as part of my Interra / WISER duties. I'm staying at the Parc 55, which is at 55 Cyril Magnin Street. The Be-In is at 444 Jessie Street which is basically 3 blocks away.
It's a 4 minute walk. But I can't walk in Google maps. Nor can I bike.
So I get traffic-centric directions to go 3 blocks, like you see in the map to the left.
This is a bigger problem than one might realize. As you can see, the Powell Street Bart station is right next to my hotel. I can fly into SFO, get on Bart, get off there and walk to my hotel.
But there are other conditions where pedestrian mapping becomes problematic. Pedestrians often run into walls built in the last 50 auto-centric years. We now have walled neighborhoods, parking lots that don't connect, 12 lane arterials, freeways, soundwalls, and other barriers.
When building maps for transit users, these walking maps are key. If you get dropped off at a stop that's two blocks from your destination but on the other side of a freeway, you could have a several mile walk ahead of you.
So, Google, listen up and go for the pedestrian mapping next!
Blogged at Gray Hill Harbor Offices in Seattle using Windows Live Writer
Jim, you're following in my footsteps. I took Bart from SFO to stay at 55 Parc last week. Eerie!
Posted by: Jon | 20 April 2007 at 18:23
Hey Jon, It's pretty comfortable here, thanks for breaking the place in! :-)
Posted by: Jim Benson | 21 April 2007 at 11:37
Sign me up for pedestrian maps too. You'd think that hotels would have "how to get here from the subway" directions down pat, but too many are clueless.
Posted by: Ed Vielmetti | 22 April 2007 at 02:27