Philly Bike Counts on Google Maps

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission collects traffic volume counts at over 5,000 locations each year. The DVRPC Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts Google Map allows users to select and view pedestrian and bicycle counts taken within the Philadelphia region.

The data for the map was collected by the DVRPC over a one week period with detailed hourly reports linked to each location. Using the map it is therefore possible to view bicycle and pedestrian traffic at different locations in the city for the year in which it was collected.

If you select an individual map marker you can click through to read a detailed report of the pedestrian or bicycle count at that location, showing the data for every hour within a one week period.

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Street View is Now a Virtual World

Blue Mars, the 3D virtual world game, has created a smaller 'lite' world that uses Google Maps Street View to create the game environment. The game is called Blue Mars Lite and it looks very impressive.

In the game players can visit anywhere that has Street View in Google Maps. The player's avatar can then move around within the Street View. In the game you can meet with other players at real-world locations on Street View.

Players can meet and chat beside the Eiffel Tower, outside Buckingham Palace or anywhere else that they wish to visit. To meet up with a another player users simply have to find a location on Google Maps and share the location with other players.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

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Street View Image API

Google has released a Street View Image API to quickly and easily add a static image to a web page.

The API provides a simple method for adding a Street View image or thumbnail to any application without the need for JavaScript. The API simply constructs a URL for the required Street View, which you can add to a web page as you would any other image. The API returns the corresponding Street View panorama as an image in JPG format.

A quick example is the Street View of the Eiffel Tower above, which I added to this post with the URL

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/streetview?size=523x200&location=48.852733, 2.303183&heading=315&fov=90&pitch=5&sensor=false

The API should prove very useful in particular for real-estate, hotel and restaurant listing sites, providing a quick and easy method for providing images of houses, hotels and restaurants.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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GIS with Google Maps

GIS Cloud is a powerful free cloud based GIS service, that allows users to create, edit, analyze and publish data from only one GIS service.

When creating a map with GIS Cloud users can choose from a number of base tiles, including OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps and Google Maps. Users can then add GIS data to the map, either from data already hosted on GIS Cloud or from their own files.

Because the application is web based GIS Cloud enables centralised access to projects. Teams can work together on a project, with each member having their own account. Any changes then made to a project are available immediately to every member of the team.

GIS Cloud projects can be shared, either by sharing the GIS Cloud URL of the project or by embedding the map in your own website. GIS Cloud also comes with a REST API and a JavaScript API.

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A Google Map of Desire in Austin

Mapping Desire was created as part of a collaboration by graduate and undergraduate students from the the University of Texas.

Participants in the project were asked whether they had experienced desire within a one-mile radius of the Blanton Museum. The answers were recorded and have been plotted on this Google Map of Austin. You can click on any of the map markers to hear the audio response of how a student was aroused at each location.

I like the non-standard presentation of the Google Map on this application, creating curved edges to the map.

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Vegas Hotels on Google Maps

Vegas Vision is a Google Map of hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.

All the hotels on the Strip are highlighted on the map. If you click on a hotel you can read a brief review. You also have the option to view the hotel in Street View, view photos of it from Flickr, read foursquare tips, Twitter messages and view videos posted to YouTube.

Vegas Vision also lets you check out all upcoming comedy and musical shows on the Strip.

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Washington DC Memorials on Google Maps

The National Capital Planning Commission has released a Google Map, called Memorials in Washington DC, to help users locate and learn about commemorative works in Washington, DC.

The memorials displayed on the map can be filtered by theme. Each information window includes a brief description of the memorial and a link to read about the full history and significance of each memorial.

The map also includes a Foursquare leaderboard. If you log-in with a Foursquare account you can see how you rank amongst other users of the map in your number of check-ins made at Washington DC memorials.

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