Cycling in Madrid with Google Maps

Mapa de la Bici de Madrid is a nice bike map for Madrid. As well as showing bike lanes, recommended roads and planned cycle routes in the city the map also includes a number of useful tools for cyclists.

The map includes a measuring tool, a search option and quick links to zoom to different districts in the city. It even includes coloured arrows on the cycle routes to show the rate and direction of incline at different positions on the route.

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The British on Google Maps

How British do you feel?

I guess that for most of you the answer will be 'Not at all'.

If you are from Great Britain then The Guardian would like to know whether you feel more British or more Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish or Northern Irish.

In order to gauge their readers' sense of national identity The Guardian has set up a Google Maps based poll. The poll asks users to enter a postcode and then select the appropriate flag depending on whether they feel more British, Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish, Northern Irish or other.

After users have answered the question they can then view a Google Map of all the answers. The map plots the answers using the different country flags that respondents chose.

Overall the map doesn't throw up many surprises. The Scottish tend to feel Scottish, the Welsh feel Welsh etc. Maybe the biggest eye-opener is the choice of the 'other' flag for most respondents in Cornwall. It looks like The Guardian should have added a Cornish flag to their possible answers.

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Thailand Floods - Google Crisis Response

In Thailand flood waters have swamped more than two-thirds of the country. Google Crisis Response has created a Google Map for the 2011 Thailand Floods.

As well as providing emergency contact information for people in the country the map contains a number of selectable layers. The map's initial view shows the flood affected areas across Thailand. It is also possible to view:

• Flooding extents
• Recent satellite imagery
• Bangkok risk areas and water barriers
• Shelters
• Parking areas
• Flooded highways

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Two Great Google Maps for Photographers

Nucuo is a Google Map and online database designed to help photographers search and find shooting locations around the world. Registered users of Nucuo can even add their own great locations for taking photos to the database and map.

Locations are displayed on the map with thumbnail images of a photo taken at each location. Using the map it is possible to search for great shooting locations by place and by a large number of tags, categorised into 'Outdoors', 'Feelings' and 'Style'.

Nuoco is a great tool for finding the right location for your photo shoot. If you do find the right location with Nuoco you could then use The Photographer's Ephemeris to find the right time to visit for the perfect light.

The Photographer's Ephemeris is a free sun and moon planning tool for outdoor photography. The application uses Google Maps to show sunrise and sunset times and indicates the current direction of the sun based on your location. The application includes some really advanced features, including automatic time zone and elevation detection, correction for atmospheric refraction and height above the horizon.

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Google Maps of the Week

This week's Google Map of the Week has to go to Google Maps itself. Or more exactly to Google Maps in WebGL.

If you haven't already seen the future of Google Maps then open up Chrome 14+ or Firefox 8+ (the Dev Channel release of Firefox). You should then see a "Want to try something new?" link in the left-hand sidebar of Google Maps. Click the link and you can view Google Maps with WebGL.

You can preview the impressive transitions in aerial view and Street View in the video below.



Another great feature in Google Maps in WebGL is the 3D buildings. Check out how the perspective of the buildings change as you pan the map around. Also check out the building shadows which are astronomically accurate and appear based on the time of day and current location of the sun (so will vary depending on the location on the Earth).

Swisstrains

An honourable mention also has to go to Swisstrains this week. The awesome Swisstrains has open-sourced all the code you need to create your own animated vehicle simulator with Google Maps.

Swisstrains use the timetables of the Swiss Federal Railways to create a simulated real-time map of the Swiss rail network. Using the map you can view the network's trains moving around Switzerland live on a Google Map.

Now you can create your own simulated vehicle simulator with the help of the code, available from GitHub. To create your own simulated network you will also need to plot your track / road network and the vehicle timetables in JSON format.

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Find Stores Worldwide with Google Maps

Store-Locator.com is a worldwide store locator which has mapped over half a million stores worldwide. The application allows users to find stores in a huge number of locations worldwide or to view all the stores for a specific store chain.

From the Store-Locator.com home page you can navigate to a dedicated Google Map showing stores in individual cities or for specific store chains. For example, if you select New York you can view the locations of stores in New York on a single map.

If you select a marker on a Store-Locator.com map and click on the 'store hours' link you are taken to the store's individual entry. Here you can view opening hours, the store's address, contact information, website address and view the brands, products and services provided.

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Google Maps, HTML5 & WebGL Demos

Click to Release features a number of very cool experiments using HTML5 (which means that you should probably use the Chrome browser to view these demos).


Urban Arteries uses the Google Maps API, three.js and what I can only guess is black magic to create a 3D view of the city around you using just the major road arteries around your location.

The app automatically detects your location but you can also use any address or use the quick links provided to see some of the major cities.


WebGL Google Street Viewer lets you explore Google Maps Street Views around the world without Flash.


I couldn't get the WebGL Weather Globe to run on my steam driven laptop but I think it uses the recently added weather data on Google Maps and places it on the Google Data Arts Team WebGL Globe. The screenshot looks cool anyway.

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