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Same in Netherlands. Google Maps has recently become worse and worse. Small pedestrian roads are missing, and the navigation is getting stupid. Google applies t

by whazor 9y ago

Same in Netherlands. Google Maps has recently become worse and worse. Small pedestrian roads are missing, and the navigation is getting stupid. Google applies the one-way limitations for cars also on cycling routes.

radicalbyte 9y ago
The navigation also constantly crashes, I can only use it two days a week because the other three days it freezes whilst loading directions.
- londons_explore 9y ago
  Send in-app feedback about it. It's probably caused by some third party app or rarely-tested phone model. They take in app feedback into account when deciding what to work on next.
sverhagen 9y ago
I don't disagree that Maps lacks a lot of smarts. Sometimes I ponder back to years ago, thinking my TomTom then worked better already than Maps now. But just to be clear, a one way road is still a one way road if you're a bicyclist, unless exceptions are specifically indicated on the traffic signs, no?
- happyraul 9y ago
  At least in Munich, one way roads that don't allow bicycles bi-directional travel are the exception. But yes, all one way roads that allow bi-directional traffic for bicycles have a traffic sign that indicates this, and often road markings as well.
- 0xcoffee 9y ago
  Pretty much every one way street in The Netherlands looks like this: http://www.trueamsterdam.com/wp-content/uploads/uitgezonderd-fietsers.jpg http://www.trueamsterdam.com/wp-content/uploads/uitgezonderd... To find a one-way street that applies to cyclists would be an exception.
  - LaGrange 9y ago
    They're common on slightly older bike paths that go on both sides of a main road, for example on Gedempte Oude Gracht in Haarlem: https://goo.gl/maps/ockjefMmUqx https://goo.gl/maps/ockjefMmUqx. It's actually super annoying, and I don't think I've seen a road done like this in last 2-3 years. Edit: but yeah, that is _slightly different_.
HenryBemis 9y ago
Same here, I've been using Google Maps in Northern Europe (in many countries) and does get worse every quarter). Perhaps there is a massive focus on the US-side. WAG: is Google preparing to be Amazon's drones mapping service that thy care so munch to even know each and every building/caravan is?
- matt4077 9y ago
  I don't think that's how Google approaches product development. I was wondering the same, i. e. "what are building shapes actually good for". But if you look at the article's screenshots, i think the obvious answer is: they're simply more fun to look at, and maybe add a certain sense of what a neighbourhood looks like. If this were a feature for something like drone landing, it wouldn't show up in the public rendering of maps. Google has boatloads of mapping information they don't show, such as travel times, detailed scenic values, allowed turns etc. And building shapes alone are both too little for landing a drone (it doesn't show detailed vegetation or power lines), as well as too much (you only need flat/not flat to land, not the detailed roof shape of different sections of a building).
  - jjoonathan 9y ago
    Building shapes are for AR occlusion.
  - saalweachter 9y ago
    > I don't think that's how Google approaches product development. I was wondering the same, i. e. "what are building shapes actually good for". But if you look at the article's screenshots, i think the obvious answer is: they're simply more fun to look at, and maybe add a certain sense of what a neighbourhood looks like. Insider perspective: I don't know why building shapes were added specifically, but you can honestly get away with basically justifying a project at Google with "because it would be cool". There's a lot of reasons you can get away with it: Google has lots of internal tools and resources and data which makes it easy to do cool things, Google is pretty well off and can afford to not be particularly "lean", and Management can justify cool things because cool things are like basic science (as the article points out) and lets you build more cool things and because users like cool things ("magic moments"). So it's very possible that the reason building shapes were added were because someone realized it wouldn't take that much work to do using Google's existing data, machine learning & computer vision research, and computational infrastructure and thought it would be cool, they convinced someone in middle-management it would be cool and a half dozen people worked on it for a year or two. [It could have also been a calculated, top-down decision and required hundreds of people working for a decade with laser focus; that happens too sometimes, I don't actually know.]
iNerdier 9y ago
To go with the comparison mentioned in the article though, Apple maps doesn’t even have an option to cycle at the moment. I never use it in London for just that reason. They’ve decided that it’s more important to add ride sharing as an option before cycling in what I can only assume is a product of their being in suburban America.
- matt4077 9y ago
  Cycling is a relatively new feature even on Google maps. I believe it appeared about three years ago? While Apple is still playing catch-up, it appears to me that cycling, and all other features mentioned in the article, are exceptionally ameliorable to machine learning, and its advances over the last few years. Apple being the only other company in the world with access to the wealth of position data on users' phones, and the financial muscle to purchase any satellite images they want to get their hands on, shouldn't have too much of a difficulty of replicating these.
  - BrandonM 9y ago
    I first used Google Maps for cycling over 7 years ago.
    - exhilaration 9y ago
      Ha, you got it exactly right, it was added in 2010: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/biking-directions-added-to-google-maps.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/biking-directions-ad...
    - matt4077 9y ago
      It might have differed by region. I went on a bike trip from Denmark to Greece in 2010 and remember doing all sorts of GIS to get good mapping data. I seem to remember discovering Google's bike directions, including the height profiles, a few months later and being slightly miffed that it wasn't available for my trip.
  - jacksmith21006 9y ago
24gttghh 9y ago
It's not too hard to suggest changes to the maps using their feedback option. I've done it around my town to fix some one-ways and lane options a few times now and they get added within a week or two usually.
- dom96 9y ago
  How do you access this feedback option? Google maps has been showing my address in the incorrect place for the past few months and I have no idea how to let them know. All I've found is "add a missing place".
  - 24gttghh 9y ago
    There should be a little "Send Feedback" link at the bottom right near the mileage/km scale. Same thing in the maps hamburger menu. You have to sign into a google account though.
    - dom96 9y ago
      Ahh yes, I see it. I'm seeing the edits I made in the past and they have not been applied, with no reason given. I tried to elaborate on the issue, hopefully this time they will fix this.
ensignavenger 9y ago
Is it legal there to ride your bike the wrong way on a one way street?
- wott 9y ago
  It depends on the country and/or the city. In France, it is legal: * in all "30 km/h zones" (which are a bit different from a single street with a 30 km/h limit), unless specifically disallowed in a specific street; * in all "'meeting' zones" (where the speed limit is 20 km/h and pedestrians have special rights); * and of course anywhere where it is specifically allowed.
- whazor 9y ago
  99% yes. Even worse, there are biking lanes on both sides so it is only a one way street for cars.

by whazor 9y ago

radicalbyte 9y ago

The navigation also constantly crashes, I can only use it two days a week because the other three days it freezes whilst loading directions.

londons_explore 9y ago
Send in-app feedback about it. It's probably caused by some third party app or rarely-tested phone model. They take in app feedback into account when deciding what to work on next.

sverhagen 9y ago

I don't disagree that Maps lacks a lot of smarts. Sometimes I ponder back to years ago, thinking my TomTom then worked better already than Maps now. But just to be clear, a one way road is still a one way road if you're a bicyclist, unless exceptions are specifically indicated on the traffic signs, no?

happyraul 9y ago
At least in Munich, one way roads that don't allow bicycles bi-directional travel are the exception. But yes, all one way roads that allow bi-directional traffic for bicycles have a traffic sign that indicates this, and often road markings as well.
0xcoffee 9y ago
Pretty much every one way street in The Netherlands looks like this: http://www.trueamsterdam.com/wp-content/uploads/uitgezonderd-fietsers.jpg http://www.trueamsterdam.com/wp-content/uploads/uitgezonderd... To find a one-way street that applies to cyclists would be an exception.
- LaGrange 9y ago
  They're common on slightly older bike paths that go on both sides of a main road, for example on Gedempte Oude Gracht in Haarlem: https://goo.gl/maps/ockjefMmUqx https://goo.gl/maps/ockjefMmUqx. It's actually super annoying, and I don't think I've seen a road done like this in last 2-3 years. Edit: but yeah, that is _slightly different_.

HenryBemis 9y ago

Same here, I've been using Google Maps in Northern Europe (in many countries) and does get worse every quarter). Perhaps there is a massive focus on the US-side. WAG: is Google preparing to be Amazon's drones mapping service that thy care so munch to even know each and every building/caravan is?

matt4077 9y ago
I don't think that's how Google approaches product development. I was wondering the same, i. e. "what are building shapes actually good for". But if you look at the article's screenshots, i think the obvious answer is: they're simply more fun to look at, and maybe add a certain sense of what a neighbourhood looks like. If this were a feature for something like drone landing, it wouldn't show up in the public rendering of maps. Google has boatloads of mapping information they don't show, such as travel times, detailed scenic values, allowed turns etc. And building shapes alone are both too little for landing a drone (it doesn't show detailed vegetation or power lines), as well as too much (you only need flat/not flat to land, not the detailed roof shape of different sections of a building).
- jjoonathan 9y ago
  Building shapes are for AR occlusion.
- saalweachter 9y ago
  > I don't think that's how Google approaches product development. I was wondering the same, i. e. "what are building shapes actually good for". But if you look at the article's screenshots, i think the obvious answer is: they're simply more fun to look at, and maybe add a certain sense of what a neighbourhood looks like. Insider perspective: I don't know why building shapes were added specifically, but you can honestly get away with basically justifying a project at Google with "because it would be cool". There's a lot of reasons you can get away with it: Google has lots of internal tools and resources and data which makes it easy to do cool things, Google is pretty well off and can afford to not be particularly "lean", and Management can justify cool things because cool things are like basic science (as the article points out) and lets you build more cool things and because users like cool things ("magic moments"). So it's very possible that the reason building shapes were added were because someone realized it wouldn't take that much work to do using Google's existing data, machine learning & computer vision research, and computational infrastructure and thought it would be cool, they convinced someone in middle-management it would be cool and a half dozen people worked on it for a year or two. [It could have also been a calculated, top-down decision and required hundreds of people working for a decade with laser focus; that happens too sometimes, I don't actually know.]

iNerdier 9y ago

To go with the comparison mentioned in the article though, Apple maps doesn’t even have an option to cycle at the moment. I never use it in London for just that reason. They’ve decided that it’s more important to add ride sharing as an option before cycling in what I can only assume is a product of their being in suburban America.

matt4077 9y ago
Cycling is a relatively new feature even on Google maps. I believe it appeared about three years ago? While Apple is still playing catch-up, it appears to me that cycling, and all other features mentioned in the article, are exceptionally ameliorable to machine learning, and its advances over the last few years. Apple being the only other company in the world with access to the wealth of position data on users' phones, and the financial muscle to purchase any satellite images they want to get their hands on, shouldn't have too much of a difficulty of replicating these.
- BrandonM 9y ago
  I first used Google Maps for cycling over 7 years ago.
  - exhilaration 9y ago
    Ha, you got it exactly right, it was added in 2010: https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/biking-directions-added-to-google-maps.html https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/biking-directions-ad...
  - matt4077 9y ago
    It might have differed by region. I went on a bike trip from Denmark to Greece in 2010 and remember doing all sorts of GIS to get good mapping data. I seem to remember discovering Google's bike directions, including the height profiles, a few months later and being slightly miffed that it wasn't available for my trip.
- jacksmith21006 9y ago

24gttghh 9y ago

It's not too hard to suggest changes to the maps using their feedback option. I've done it around my town to fix some one-ways and lane options a few times now and they get added within a week or two usually.

dom96 9y ago
How do you access this feedback option? Google maps has been showing my address in the incorrect place for the past few months and I have no idea how to let them know. All I've found is "add a missing place".
- 24gttghh 9y ago
  There should be a little "Send Feedback" link at the bottom right near the mileage/km scale. Same thing in the maps hamburger menu. You have to sign into a google account though.
  - dom96 9y ago
    Ahh yes, I see it. I'm seeing the edits I made in the past and they have not been applied, with no reason given. I tried to elaborate on the issue, hopefully this time they will fix this.

ensignavenger 9y ago

Is it legal there to ride your bike the wrong way on a one way street?

wott 9y ago
It depends on the country and/or the city. In France, it is legal: * in all "30 km/h zones" (which are a bit different from a single street with a 30 km/h limit), unless specifically disallowed in a specific street; * in all "'meeting' zones" (where the speed limit is 20 km/h and pedestrians have special rights); * and of course anywhere where it is specifically allowed.
whazor 9y ago
99% yes. Even worse, there are biking lanes on both sides so it is only a one way street for cars.