{"id":1787396,"date":"2019-05-31T10:09:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T14:09:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1787396"},"modified":"2019-05-31T10:09:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T14:09:47","slug":"you-are-blowing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/05\/you-are-blowing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"‘You Are Blowing It’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom MacWright thinks that online maps are neglecting bicycle and multimodal routing<\/a> at the expense of driving directions, which keep getting better.<\/p>\n

Routing is the most powerful tool we have to reduce the environmental impact of driving, make cities quieter, safer, and more livable, and fight congestion. And you are blowing it.<\/p>\n

This might be because HERE, the number two provider of map technologies, was bought by a bunch of car companies. Or because Google is headquartered in the suburbs. Or that the financial world is fixated on opening the pandora\u2019s box of self-driving cars.<\/p>\n

But the end result is the same: bicycle and multimodal routing continues to be a toy, and driving directions keep getting better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This might well be about systems designed for in-car navigation first, or designed to replace them; or that are aimed at what is perceived to be the meat of the market. There are undoubtedly solutions out there that address Tom’s points, but there’s something to be said for having that solution front and centre in a mainstream service rather than having to find it in a less well-known app or a dedicated device.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom MacWright thinks that online maps are neglecting bicycle and multimodal routing at the expense of driving directions, which keep getting better. Routing is the most powerful tool we have to reduce the environmental impact… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,80],"tags":[577,85,1345],"class_list":["post-1787396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-industry","category-mobile","tag-cycling","tag-driving-directions","tag-multimodal-routing","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1807732,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/06\/online-map-roundup-apple-maps-in-ios-16-google-maps-displays-tolls-yandex-erases-borders\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787396,"position":0},"title":"Online Map Roundup: Apple Maps in iOS 16, Google Maps Displays Tolls, Yandex Erases Borders","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 June 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Apple Maps in iOS 16 will gain multi-stop routing, which I thought was a long-established feature on other platforms, as well as transit fare\/card\/pass integration. Apple\u2019s new maps will also expand to more countries, and its detailed city maps will expand to more cities in the U.S., Australia and Canada.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1790617,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/04\/apple-and-google-updates-ai-improvements-airport-health-measures\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787396,"position":1},"title":"Apple and Google Updates: AI Improvements, Airport Health Measures","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 April 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"Last week Google announced \u201cover 100 AI-powered improvements to Google Maps\u201d would be coming this year; these include bringing Live View indoors, a new air quality map layer, eco-friendly routing, and support for curbside pickup in business listings. Meanwhile, Apple Maps is now displaying airport COVID-19-related health measures based on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1832673,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/07\/map-splaining\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787396,"position":2},"title":"‘Map-Splaining’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 July 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Modern online maps have so much data under the hood, and provide an overabundance of detail, that they can\u2019t help but bombard the user, The Atlantic\u2019s Ian Bogost argues, coining a term for their \u201csheer exhaustiveness\u201d: map-splaining. It\u2019s a challenge to take all that data and make directions comprehensible. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1805941,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/01\/tomtom-says-its-algorithms-avoid-potentially-dangerous-routes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787396,"position":3},"title":"TomTom Says Its Algorithms Avoid Potentially Dangerous Routes","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 January 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"It probably has nothing to do with Google redirecting traffic up poorly maintained mountain roads during a blizzard in California last month (previously), but TomTom has posted a piece explaining how its algorithms avoid sending drivers down potentially dangerous routes in Finland even though, on paper, they\u2019re shorter. TomTom\u2019s routing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1842820,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/06\/some-minor-updates-to-apple-and-google-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787396,"position":4},"title":"Some Minor Updates to Apple and Google Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"19 June 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"In what seems like a relatively minor update, Apple Maps will learn your preferred routes and remember visited places as of iOS 26, coming this fall. Meanwhile, Google Maps has announced some sustainable travel updates: recommending alternatives to driving, cycling route details, fuel-efficient routing, and marking low-emissions zones in Europe.","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1791587,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/08\/mapquest-to-the-rescue\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787396,"position":5},"title":"MapQuest to the Rescue?","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 August 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"Adam Engst of TidBITS\u00a0had a specific routing problem that only one map app could solve. The answer, as they say, will surprise you:\u00a0\u201cWhen faced with needing to visit 43 different addresses, what was the most efficient route? It\u2019s easy enough to enter an address into Apple\u2019s Maps or Google Maps,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787396"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787398,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787396\/revisions\/1787398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}