New map data supplier for Google Maps

[thing1]

...just went live: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/12/updating-maps-of-united-kingdom-germany.html

Basically this means every single road in the UK has been re-mapped out (you can see in the bottom right corner it is now (c) Google, where it used to be (c) Tele Atlas).


This means maps of your local area (esp. parks, schools, etc) may look a bit different, and more importantly your favourite routes from A to B may now have slightly changed; especially in walking mode. ('snap to road' routes vended up in bikeroutetoaster, bikehike etc will probably be affected too.)

So if you're like me and in the habit of using gmaps to check shortest distances for a would be audax-by-GPS, it may now now give a slightly different answer.

Also... there's now a 'report a problem' button in bottom right corner, and fixes normally come through in days rather than months.

[Ian H]

That's quite good. The lane that wouldn't route over a level crossing, that I spent much time getting fixed, and which then unfixed itself a few weeks later, is now fixed again. Also overdue updates nearby by and, strangely, lots of named copses. However, the old main road is mis-named two different ways.
"Report a problem".

[JonBuoy]

Thanks for that  -  I noticed that it was different last night, tried Googling for information on the change, found nothing and assumed that I had messed it up somehow.

This has sorted the level crossing near me that routes used to be scared of but I find the new look very cluttered when I am trying to plot stuff in bikehike etc.  The increase in detail means that every little stream is far more prominently displayed than the minor roads that I want to cycle along.  OS maps (eg Landranger) seem to have even greater detail at comparable zoom levels but the various features are more easily differentiated.

[Manotea]

Bikehike/Gmaps now shows the path in Horseguards Drive which is the shortcut through to Maidenhead Bridge, a.k.a., The Maidenhead Manouvre, but will not route across it....

Edit: Unless you select 'walking', which as it happens is the preferred mode for establishing shortest distance by controls!

[frankly frankie]

Interesting, thanks for the heads-up.

A short place-to-place near me that was about 800m in walking mode, on the old map, now shows as 3.2km on the new one.
(As it happens in this case, neither is the 'correct' cycle-friendly distance, which is about 1.3km.)

[Richard Fairhurst]

I am 99% sure that there will be a cycling option in Google Maps' route-finding option within months. There's already one in some places in the US.

If you look carefully, the NCN is already in their database, and marked as such (you can get it to generate routes that say 'turn left on Route 5' for otherwise unnamed minor roads). I would also be surprised if they didn't use the data commissioned from Cycle City Guides by DfT which is being hawked around.

[frankly frankie]

Yes but 'Sustrans mode' as it will effectively be, while welcome, is of very limited use to road-oriented cyclists.

[The Mechanic]

Just had a quick look at the area around me (Aberdeen).  The roads look OK but some of the POIs are way off.