It’s fast, convenient, healthy, eco-friendly, fun, and cheap - and now it’s also getting even easier.
We’re talking about biking.
Yesterday, Google announced their new bikeshare information feature in Google Maps. With this new feature, travelers and commuters in 24 cities can now use Google Maps to locate bikesharing stations, see how many bikes are available at a station, and find out whether there’s an empty space for them to leave their bike or not. All in real-time.
It’s not the first time Google adds shared vehicle stations to their map. Last December, the company teamed up with Lime to help commuters travel the last mile by guiding them towards Lime stations. The new bikeshare integration that has been available in New York for the past year, is made possible from data provided by Ito World.
The feature is available on Google Maps for Android and iOS in Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Chicago, Dublin, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kaohsiung, London, Los Angeles, Lyon, Madrid, Mexico City, Montreal, New Taipei City, New York City, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco Bay Area, São Paulo, Toronto, Vienna, Warsaw, and Zurich with more on the way.
Fun facts
We love to bike in Denmark. Especially in Copenhagen, where one of our three MapsPeople offices is located. Here are a few fun facts about our cycling culture that I bet you didn't know.
- In 1995, Copenhagen was one of the first cities in the world to launch free city bikes to citizens and visitors.
- Copenhageners love their bike. Actually, there are more bikes than inhabitants in the city.
- The City of Copenhagen gave American president Bill Clinton a specially designed city bike called City Bike One, when he visited Copenhagen in 1997.
- Copenhagen has 375 kilometres of cycle tracks and traffic lights that are coordinated in favour of cyclists during rush hour. It even has cycle super highways, leading cyclists in and out of the city from as far as 15 kilometres away.
- The city has been ranked the world’s top cycling city for two years in a row.
- Other cities, including New York, look to Copenhagen for inspiration on how to plan for a bike culture. This even has its own term: “copenhagenization” or “to copenhagenize”
If you liked this blog, maybe you'll also enjoy the blog below about the partnership between Google Maps and Lime.
July 17, 2019
