Issue 2: Bike lanes that don't exist need to be removed from Google Maps
Summary: Google Maps Cycling layer has light green continuous lines that represent "a dedicated bike lane along a road." In most cities, the majority of cycling must take place on roads shared with motor vehicles, typically with speed limits of 40 - 70 km/hr. Consequently, roads with Dedicated bike lanes should reflect the safest on-road cycling routes. Cyclists using Google Maps to plan their cycling routes rely heavily on these bike lanes actually existing and providing sufficient, safe cycling space.Unfortunately, Google Maps marks up many roads as having Dedicated lanes when they don't have proper bike lanes. Some of these roads have some sort of painted bike symbols or intermittent dashed lines. Other roads have no discernable cycling markings at all.
In this post, I provide examples of these incorrectly marked Dedicated lanes and explain why they should be removed. Where appropriate, some can be replaced with dashed green lines representing Bicycle-friendly roads. Others should not have any type of green line as they are not bike routes suitable for most cyclists.
Details:
1. An example of a lengthy, high-profile bike route which has been incorrectly marked as having Dedicated lanes for years
Bridge Road is a key east-west arterial road connecting Melbourne's city centre with its inner east suburbs. Indeed this road is listed as a key metro route in Bicycle Victoria's list: Inner: Bridge Road
Bicycle Victoria says of Bridge Rd:
- Bridge Rd Richmond is a key route heading into the CBD and is a popular destination in its own right
- Access to the Melbourne CBD from sections of the eastern suburbs can be difficult.
- Bicycle Network believes that improved bicycle faciliites on Bridge Rd will lead to an increase of rider numbers from the east.
- Improvements could include dedicated bike lanes or separated lanes.Perhaps because Bridge Rd is such a key cycling route and should have dedicated cycling space, some optimistic soul jumped the gun and added Dedicated lanes between Punt Rd and Yarra Blvd:
Or maybe someone who doesn't even live in Melbourne but likes racking up Google Map Maker edits, doesn't know their bike lanes from their tramway lines and used Google Street View to conclude that there are bike lanes on Bridge Rd:
Most likely though is some involvement from a government agency (City of Yarra, VicRoads) who sometimes seek to represent more cycling infrastructure and bike-friendly routes than actually exist. The only official cycling maps provided in Victoria are TravelSmart paper/PDF maps with terrible useability. Bridge Rd is represented as an "Informal Bike Route" on this map:
In reality, Bridge Rd has no Dedicated bike lanes or bike lanes of any sort. It provides some informal cycling space - suited to experienced cyclists - between parked cars and the tram track during non-peak hours. But, during the critical weekday peak hours, there is insufficient safe cycling space on this route. The route is congested with heavy, impatient traffic and should not be represented as a Bicycle-friendly road either until conditions are improved for cyclists.
Below is the video I took of cycling along Bridge Rd during the evening peak. There are intermittent bike symbols and a few scattered dashed lines, but definitely no Dedicated bike lane or sufficient, safe cycling space. It's an uncomfortable ride with lots of squeezes and the constant worry about vehicles getting impatient behind or trying to pass too close. It ought to be a no-brainer to delete the Dedicated lane marking from this road.
2. Governments often remove bike lanes formally or let them fade away or be parked over. These cycling infrastructure deletions should be captured by Google Maps data request processes
While hard to believe, bike lanes and cycling infrastructure do often get removed, replaced by other priorities (e.g. transit, parking), or are left to degrade. Indeed, in this case, Bicycle Victoria notes that at least some sections of Bridge Rd did have bike lanes several years ago but these were removed. Yet, Google doesn't appear to ever collect Cycling layer data to be removed, only added. This needs to change.
3. A likely reason for many incorrectly marked Dedicated lanes is that the route is a necessary cycling route and government agencies (or possibly cycling organisations) want to reflect this somehow but are reluctant to use the "Bicycle-friendly roads" classification
Google Maps Cycling layer has problematic deficiencies with its simplified classification system for cycling routes, with only two options available to represent on-road routes: Dedicated lanes or Bicycle-friendly roads.
Moreover, "Dedicated lanes" are a primarily objective classification relating to infrastructure that, in and of themselves, imply nothing about how safe, comfortable or cyclist-friendly a route is. In Australia, you can have "Dedicated lanes" that cars can cross (or travel in before a turn) at 80km/hr (e.g. Princes Hwy). Or very narrow "Dedicated lanes" that mean cars can pass very close at 60km/hr (e.g. Albert St, Preston).
Conversely, using the classification "Bicycle-friendly roads" is primarily subjective and dependent on human judgement. I suspect that government agencies often prefer not to label unsafe cycling routes missing Dedicated bike lanes as "Bicycle-friendly roads" as this, at best, is open to criticism and, at worst, may create some liability if clearly wrong. Therefore, marking them as having Dedicated lanes even though they don't have any may be seen as a less risky way of getting these cycling routes on Google Maps.
The unanswered question for Google Maps is: How do you mark up an on-road cycling route (like Bridge Rd) that doesn't have Dedicated lanes if it isn't "Bicycle-friendly" but may still be a necessary link, more convenient than safer routes, or the best option currently available?
Oregon Metro's Bike There map is the best example of a well-developed cycling route map that does answer this question. It has a meaningful 6 level hierarchy which includes 2 classifications (Helpful connection; Bike with Caution) to represent routes that lack safe cycling facilities but may still be necessary, direct or popular.
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