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Comment by arikr | Hacker News Reader

Wonderful. I'd really like these same features in Waze and Google Maps - if it means I can avoid having to cross a busy intersection that's not a 4-way stop, and reduce stress and increase safety, I'd gladly accept a route that's a few minutes slower.

Anyone from Waze or Google Maps team here?

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Yeah, this is a serious problem with Google Maps directions. They want to send cyclists down the fastest routes, which are usually the least safe routes. There's a route in Kent, WA that Google was recommending that was downhill on a 45 MPH two-lane street with no shoulder or dividers. Meanwhile, about a mile further south there was this safe, car-free route that wound through residential subdivisions.

As a cyclist another large issue I have with google maps is a suggested route's overlay having no transparency, so it's not possible to tell which parts of the route are indeed safer bike lanes and not just riding in traffic.

I find myself constantly getting directions, then cancelling the navigation so I can once again see indicated bike lanes and adjust accordingly. A slight opacity on the route indicator would be a godsend.

Not just for cyclists. Around here Google Maps will find "shortcuts" through single track back country roads which are especially dangerous in winter by car or bike.

They will respond to feedback about such roads not being suitable for general traffic.

If you are in the US the data problem is likely an artifact of TIGER which has hundreds or thousands of miles of roads that are given a single generic class which ends up being pretty unreliable outside of developed areas.

Even in the Bay Area, it's not hard to get GMaps to try to e.g. route you through a park, a fire road, a private road (the type with HOAs and nasty signs about how they'll prosecute you if you try to drive down their precious street).

Not that it helps in the moment, but every time that has happened to me, I've reported it to Google and they've changed it.

It's not GMaps, but I've been using Bike Citizens and it has an option to select one of three profiles, depending on how much you want to avoid busy/larger streets (Note: as far as I know they don't use Mapzen's algorithm.)

Only a tangent, but I just started a new job and used Google Maps to find me a route and it's absolutely glorious. It's on roads I never would have thought of, avoids streets with heavy traffic, only has 3 traffic lights.. I'm not sure if it's just dumb luck, or the fact that there are a decent number of neighborhoods through Palo Alto that are relaxed tree-lined streets, or what.. but it's only a couple miles shorter than my commute to my old job and an order of magnitude more pleasant. Looking forward to using this API to see if it recommends changes.

(Oh, and I mean for journeys by car, not even by bike)

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