Great news for pedestrians everywhere! Google has added walking directions along side driving directions and transit trip planning.
Great news for pedestrians everywhere! Google has added walking directions along side driving directions and transit trip planning.
0 responses to “Google Walks”
It’s only a matter of time until they have bike directions built right in.
The only problem I can see with their walking instructions, and it’s difficult to overcome, is that it only allows walking on streets. As far as I’ve been able to tell, it doesn’t have any pedestrian trails in the map base. Just as examples, it doesn’t know about the pedestrian bridge over I-84 at Hollywood TC, nor does it know about the pedestrian/bike underpass at 17th & Powell.
And it doesn’t allow walking across open spaces like parks.
These aren’t insurmountable problems for Google, and many of the pedestrian trails should be available somewhere (Metro?), but the open space thing is a tough one.
MOST EXCELLENT!
They may not yet have these overpasses, but at least they have things like the Eastbank Esplanade and Waterfront Park. They’ve got at least one park, the rest of them would seem like a natural extension.
Great, another concession to those freeloading pedestrians!
(kidding)
Google could get a head start on the bike end of things by buying up, or hiring, or in some other fashion giving lots of money to http://www.bycycle.org. Really a great site, though only covering Portland and Milwaukee so far.
There is another bicycle trip planner up in Seattle (no, can’t remember the name) which even incorporated topography into the itineraries. As does the very cool
bicycle trip planner in Stuttgart.
Gee, awful quiet around here,
Does anybody have any suggestions (Bob R) as to what the single BEST walk in Portland is?
In other words, if you were visiting Portland for one day and could take one walk of 4 hours, where would it be?
WELL….
I guess i’ll just have to use the google map!
buenos nochos amigos!
I wouldn’t want to walk anywhere for four hours, Al, but that’s just me. I’m a big fan of downtown Portland, though, and would definitely recommend a walk that included both sides of the Willamette along the Esplanade, then a wander up to Powells for books and over to Kenny & Zuke’s for a pastrami on rye.
Up and down the stacks of books at Powell’s.
:)
Recently I was introduced to the Leif Erikson Drive trail in Forest Park. It’s a popular trail, beloved by many Portlanders, but I hadn’t actually managed to try it out until this summer.
It can be a bit rough in places, and bring proper footwear because you can run into mud even several days after it rains.
We started from the north end on Germantown road. The trail is shared by walkers, joggers, and mountain bikers. It’s rather high up, and you get occasional glimpses of the river and St. Johns through the trees. The trail is 11 miles long — good enough for a 4 hour walk for sure. The south end is at Thurman St. in NW Portland.
If you like a touch of seclusion, little traffic noise, and lots of ferns, it’s worth checking out.
Forest park has a whole network of trails, most pedestrian-only, worth checking out.
Thanks gentlemen!
The esplanade seems pretty unique to me, actually start on Hawthorne@ 39th, west on Hawthorne onto the esplanade east side, over the steel bridge, esplanade west to salmon,salmon west to 4th, north on 4th, walk through downtown,to burnside (stop at powells of course),burnside to 10th, 10th north over to Glison, up Glison to 21st, 21st south to Everett, Everett west to 23rd, 23rd north to Lovejoy,—-> streetcar—> downtown,—> 14 bus to where you started.
Thats a good four hours not including any stop overs and gives someone a pretty decent view of Portland, and its real beauty!
Of course forest park is great too, but its not really the city of Portland.
Al M
Slight adjustment;
steetcar to the 15 bus, 15 up Belmont, get off at 39th, walk the few blocks back to where you started.
WALKING;
is the only way to see and feel where you are.
Even bicycles are too fast to really appreciate where you are.
And driving around in your car?
You might as well have just stayed at home.
Al M
Bob R. wrote: Forest park has a whole network of trails, most pedestrian-only, worth checking out.
Oh, great. One of the last, truly pedestrian friendly, bike free zones, has been publicly identified on a Portland blog.
Expect the BTA and other bike associations to take up a “ForestParkZoom” or Critical Mass event to shove the poor families with children who are just trying to take a nice quiet nature hike out of the way while they tear up the dirt paths.
al m Says:
Of course forest park is great too, but its not really the city of Portland.
The very existence of Forest Park is emblematic of Portland, because no other city has anything like it. But, yeah, it’s like walking in the woods, not walking in Portland.
And they have no pastrami.
Erik,
Oh, great. One of the last, truly pedestrian friendly, bike free zones, has been publicly identified on a Portland blog.
I think Forest Park was a pretty known quantity before it made its appearance here on this blog…
Expect the BTA and other bike associations to take up a “ForestParkZoom” or Critical Mass event to shove the poor families with children who are just trying to take a nice quiet nature hike out of the way while they tear up the dirt paths.
Well… There’s already plenty of cyclists up on Leif Erikson, so if they had ever wanted to engage in the terrorizing of small children on the smaller side trails, they’ve long had the opportunity to do so – it’s just a matter of turning off Leif Erikson.
Also, the times I’ve gone walking in those side trails, I’ve seen lots of joggers and dog walkers, but not lots of kids. So those cyclists who bike purely to revel in the plaintive wails of terrified families would likely look elsewhere.
Further, as a frequent cyclist who’s engaged in a few big group rides, I can say the prime motivation to do so has little to do with the shoving around of families and children. (Some avid cyclists even have children. That’s right, we’re breeding! Bwa-ha-ha!) Instead, those big rides tend to be about claiming space for cyclists from cars, not pedestrians.
Now, some big rides inconvenience pedestrians as a byproduct, but that’s an unfortunate side affect, not the intent. (Happily, at the World Naked Bike Ride, even the inconvenienced pedestrians seemed pretty darned entertained.)
Of course, if you’re troubled by certain cyclists who ride without consideration of pedestrian safety, and rights in general – passing too close, too fast, like one often sees on the East Side Esplanade – well, I’m with you there. But, then, I’m against inconsiderate people of all forms, regardless of their chosen modes of transportation.
Actually, PUMP (Portland United Mountain Pedalers) is working with Friends of Forest Park and the City to develop mountain biking trails that are both separated from hiking trails AND environmentally sensitive.
Unlike Lief Erickson, which is actually a mostly abandoned street, most of the true trails in Forest Park are off-limits to bikes.
al m,
The esplanade seems pretty unique to me, actually start on Hawthorne@ 39th, west on Hawthorne onto the esplanade east side, over the steel bridge, esplanade west to salmon,salmon west to 4th, north on 4th, walk through downtown,to burnside (stop at powells of course),burnside to 10th, 10th north over to Glison, up Glison to 21st, 21st south to Everett, Everett west to 23rd, 23rd north to Lovejoy,—-> streetcar—> downtown,—> 14 bus to where you started.
That sounds like a great walk, along the lines of ones that I do on a regular basis. I might suggest also varying a bit north or south of Hawthorne: north to Laurelhurst Park, and my favorite businesses on Belmont: Pine State Biscuits, Stumptown Coffee, Utopia Cafe and Laughing Planet. And south of Hawthorne is Ladd’s addition, which is a beautiful place to get thoroughly lost, with really nice gardens, and a pretty great coffee shop in the center.
My walks tend to include a lot of eating and drinking coffee…
Some of the ones I’ve done:
– Lloyd District to Sellwood, via Katz Eastbank Esplanade and Springwater Trail
– 82nd & Johnson Creek Blvd. to Powell Butte, via Springwater Trail (hmm… notice a pattern here)
– Powell Butte to Downtown Gresham, again via Springwater Trail.
“Also, the times I’ve gone walking in those side trails, I’ve seen lots of joggers and dog walkers, but not lots of kids. So those cyclists who bike purely to revel in the plaintive wails of terrified families would likely look elsewhere.”
The wildwood trail is so busy these days that I have stopped going down there, except in the middle of winter, and even then you see plenty of people.
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“Unlike Lief Erickson, which is actually a mostly abandoned street, most of the true trails in Forest Park are off-limits to bikes.”
I’ve seen plenty of bikes down there, although not enough to be driven off the trail. I am more worried about the dogs running loose in that park. Several times I was almost bitten.
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“My walks tend to include a lot of eating and drinking coffee…”
hehe……
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“Springwater Trail.”
YES, I’ve heard about that for a long time. I need to try that one some day!
I used to ride the Springwater Trail out to Boring for training rides, it’s ok but imo not really anything worth writing home about (though it is a nice way to get to Powell Butte). On the other hand, the portion of the Springwater that runs next to the Willamette is pretty nice, and puts you right in the middle of Oaks Bottom.
I spent the past month housesitting out in Gresham and commuted to downtown on the Springwater by bike. It’s a nice and easy (if long) ride. It’ll be nice when the city finally closes the Sellwood gap.
There was a good article about this in Saturday’s business section of the Oregonian, discussing the challenges to creating walk and bike mapping systems:
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1217040903109920.xml&coll=7
It seems odd that a story about bicycling and walking maps websites in the Oregonian wouldn’t at least mention the bicycle route mapping website in Portland: http://bycycle.org/regions/portlandor