Google takes a stab at biking & hiking trails with their map cam

Exciting news from USA Today:

Now Google Maps is expanding to biking and hiking trails. A Google employee on a tricycle rides around to snap the same wide-area views.

“Much of the world is inaccessible to the car,” says Daniel Ratner, a Google senior engineer who designed the trike. “We want to get access to places people find important.”

Starting out with 1 trail in Monterey

The project just got underway. So far, only a bike trail in Monterey, Calif., is up and running. Google has cyclists out now in California, Italy and the United Kingdom. The company says to look for hiking and biking images from those locations over the summer — along with shots from U.S. theme parks. Google won’t say which ones.

The addition of biking and hiking trails to Street View is a smooth marketing move, he says. “I see Google saying, ‘You’re freaked out by Street View, well, look at this. What’s not to like about biking and hiking trails?’ It makes the whole project now seem warm and fuzzy.”

Ratner’s trike is a modified three-wheeled bike, like the ones used to take tourists for a spin, with a huge antenna and camera on back. It looks so different from a normal bike that when people see him, they ask, ” ‘Is that a Google robot?’ ” Ratner says.

This is great for bike commuters or trail users.  To read the entire article, click on this link http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-09-biking-maps-google_N.htm