Today, Google Maps is rolling out bicycle directions:
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/google-maps-for-bikes
There are a number of existing bike map providers, many of which have grown through community-provided, crowd-sourced data. One could argue that these projects have struggled to garner sufficient participation to really take off:
- http://www.bikely.com/
- http://www.nycbikemaps.com/maps/nyc-bike-map/
- http://opentripplanner.org/
- http://www.opencyclemap.org/
Now, all at once, Google is offering bike maps in 150 cities with relatively comprehensive routes. As the Wired article states, “No longer do [bikers] have to rely upon paper maps or open-source DIY map hacking….”
Google has been able to do this by leveraging its deep resources to get data sets from a wide variety of organizations, and to throw a team of full-time programmers at the task; resources that the DIY map providers were unable to garner.
Does this spell the end for DIY cycle mapping? Will having a major commercial bike map provider decrease people’s motivation to contribute their own routes or use potentially clunkier interfaces? Can we learn something here about the relationship between crowd-sourced, DIY public services and corporate takeovers?