Comments on: Neat new Google Maps feature

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 10:33:44 +0000

Google Maps is fast becoming, it seems to me, a bloated do-everything tool that scares me off. To get a map, I go to streetmap.co.uk, to get a driving route I go to the AA (that’s the UK Automobile Association, not Alcoholics Anonymous), simply because they each do one thing that I need well. Multifunctional we-can-do-everything-in-theworld-including-plan-your-social-life-and-make-you-sexy things just don’t do it for me. Google Maps is making me less likely to use it with every new twiddle and gadget, not more. Google might want to bear in mind that I’m probably not alone.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:49:32 +0000

Thanks Eszter for a really useful tip, which I employed at the weekend. Google wanted to send me a long way on freeways, but the “no freeway” option was hopeless. Putting a marker at a crucial point on the route did the trick.

By: Joseph O'Rourke

Joseph O'Rourke — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:00:22 +0000

Last Friday I used Google Maps to lead me from Northampton MA to Brooklyn NY. Every NY’er knows that one does not risk the Cross-Bronx Expressway on a Friday afternoon, but Google was oblivious to this common knowledge. The result: an estimated 3-hr trip turned into 6+ hrs, and only then because we abandoned the route at some point and wended our way without guidance through the Bronx on minor streets.
I look forward to the day that the driving directions understand traffic!

By: jacob

jacob — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 04:31:21 +0000

Another response to D White: You might know your route entirely and want to know how long it is, either for curiosity’s sake or to confirm one’s thought that such-and-such a way is more direct than the alternative. Indeed, that’s how I’ve used it.

By: Ibn Kafka

Ibn Kafka — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 21:59:34 +0000

Well, at least you’re all fortunate enough to have access to Google Maps – Moroccan bloggers like myself are hindered from accessing to Google Maps, through the action of Moroccan authorities acting on dubious national security grounds – the same goes for Google Earth…

By: Adam Stephanides

Adam Stephanides — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 15:36:31 +0000

I hate to say this (being as opposed as anyone to destroying neighborhoods to build highways) but the absence of an easily accessible highway is a real pain if you live in Evanston. I used to live there, so I know. (I lived in SW Evanston, so my preferred route was Asbury /Western to Peterson to Ridge to Hollywood to the LSD.)

Iirc, there was once a plan to build an interstate through Evanston, whose route would approximately follow Sheridan. But this got switched to the Crosstown Expressway (which would have connected the Kennedy and the Ryan, bypassing downtown), which eventually was scrapped altogether.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 08:21:17 +0000

D White – You might want to avoid certain streets and get alternatives to what it’s suggesting when you don’t know the route. You might know parts of a route, but not the rest, and want to control where you go where you know it.

By: Jon H

Jon H — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 06:25:05 +0000

I take it the new feature doesn’t enforce traffic direction on one-way streets?

I always wanted the ability to get walking directions, which they could provide by just treating all streets as two-way.

By: coturnix

coturnix — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 01:20:13 +0000

Next: bridle paths. I’m waiting for that.

By: D White

D White — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:30:43 +0000

If you already know enough about an area to plot the best route, what do you need Google for?

By: Alex R

Alex R — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:48:07 +0000

hk: I’ve used gmap-pedometer. It’s more convenient in some ways than the new google map features, but it has the feature/defect that it’s legs are straight lines, rather than following streets. This is good if your path goes along foot trails or otherwise off the road, but it’s bad if you are following a road that curves very much, as it means you have to add a lot of extra points to follow the curve. If you had an optional “follow shortest on-street route” feature for gmap-pedometer that you could turn on and off while making a route, that would be hard to beat.

By: marcel

marcel — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:27:21 +0000

Peter (#5): I too used to live in Evanston, and used to use your route all the time, but I lived in S. Evanston, a block from Ridge. Based on my experience and the responses you got (#s 9 & 10), it seems like the key part of any route from Evanston to anywhere in the NE quadrant of Chicago south of Rogers Park is to be sure to take LSD. Worked for me.

By: eszter

eszter — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:33:09 +0000

Thanks, HK, I've heard about GMap-Pedometer before, but had never tried it, great! For pedometer enthusiasts, I highly recommend WalkerTracker! I plan to blog about it separately sometime.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:49:18 +0000

Chris, Foster is hardly “downtown Evanston” – no offense to the folks who live in that residential area – and that section of town has fewer lights than Ridge. Lights are usually to be avoided in my experience.

By: Chris Goedde

Chris Goedde — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:20:21 +0000

I have to agree with peter; from Eszter’s office I would just take Noyes or Foster straight to Ridge and then follow that down to Hollywood. This avoids downtown Evanston and is also faster in North Chicago.