#Driving directions google maps how to

Multimodality also has the added benefit of improving community health and livability. Jacob deCastro, a spokesperson for the New York City-based Transportation Alternatives, concurred with Wells, adding that “Google has a responsibility to encourage more sustainable forms of transportation.” But making low- or zero-carbon transportation more appealing and easier to navigate could have an even larger impact on reducing emissions given the size of Google Map’s user base. Google has an ambitious climate plan, including a commitment to operate using solely carbon-free energy by 2030. And Google Maps is right there on everyone's phone.”

“But we need to make doing something different easier. “Driving is a default for most people in America,” Wells said. But cities have not historically prioritized alternatives like biking or public transit, much less multimodality. That’s contributing to climate change and local pollution, as well as urban sprawl and safety issues. While the transition to electric vehicles is underway, the vast majority of vehicles on the road are gas-powered and will be for decades to come. In the U.S., the transportation sector is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Google did not reply to questions about the inconsistency of its multimodal directions, though a spokesperson did note that Amsterdam, Paris, Zurich, Madrid, Dublin, Tel Aviv and Boston are among cities with biking and transit options linked up - and that the company plans to keep expanding to other locations. Wells said adding a toggle between “have bike” or “do not have bike” within Google Maps’ transit directions could optimize a journey accordingly. Google announced the launch of multimodal functionality in 2019, saying it would make “it easy to pair transit directions with biking and ridesharing options.” But nearly three years later, the app suggests walking or even using rideshare apps for the first and last miles in the vast majority of situations, even when biking would save time. However, it seems that the company has yet to prioritize combining these functionalities for its whole user base. The app’s functionality has evolved dramatically over the years, and today offers transit options from “fewest transfers” to “least walking,” as well as bike-share directions down to the nearest station and how many bikes are available. “Our legacy transit systems are not user-friendly, and are meant for daily riders, and not for new arrivals, whether you’re a tourist or someone who just moved to the city yesterday.” “The fact that they have transit directions totally changes what people’s experiences of new cities are like,” Wells, who doesn’t own a car, said. Google Maps already has a massive impact on how people get around.

#Driving directions google maps how to

“You shouldn’t have to be a transportation planner to figure out how to use our transportation system,” said Warren Wells, the policy and planning director for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. But it’s a trial-and-error process given that Google Maps and its competitors largely don’t offer multimodal trip planning. Many daily commuters even take their bikes on the train, and use them for the first and last miles of their journey. It’s an approach that plenty of people already cobble together on their own: hopping on a bikeshare for a mile or two to reach the most convenient subway station, then taking a single train to their destination. With a simple fix, though, Google could unlock a way for people to get around that would save users both time and emissions: combining bike and transit directions for a multimodal option that allows users to largely avoid both traffic and transfers. More than 1 billion monthly users task Google Maps with figuring out the fastest way to drive, walk, bike or take public transit to wherever they need to go.īut a trip across town can sometimes lead to a convoluted array of public transit transfers, a long walk or getting snarled in a traffic jam.