Silver Case

Google Maps now has a mode for bicycling directions. It doesn’t work in Singapore yet, so I tried it on the Murrysville-to-Corsica route. Click on the map to be taken to the full directions.

Overall, the directions (both by car and by bike) are odd, or at least not what we’d customarily do (follow state 66, basically).

The bike version really diverges once I reach West Kittaning. Rather than going northeast, up through Goheenville and Distant, it keeps running north, along the river. Maybe it prefers along the river because the grade is not going to be as severe? That little detour along the river, for instance, adds 15km to the trip. It also avoids Olean Trail for some reason. Maybe it tries to avoid gravelly roads too?

The estimated time is also bizarre — 8 hours to ride 115km. It thinks I average 14km/h? ahhaahh not quite. Unless I really underestimate the altitude climb required for this ride, I don’t see why it would be so slow. On rides half as long I can pretty easily manage 27km/h solo.

Anyway, maybe I’ll try some version of the alternative Google bicycling directions when i am in the USA this summer. Certainly stretches of 66 are not that nice for cycling (no shoulder, two-lane highway). Maybe the riverside run would be nice.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Bike.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.