Google adds elevation data to bike routes on its Maps service

Google has quietly added elevation data to bike routes in its Maps service, providing better intel for intrepid cyclists. The feature, which launched Friday, seems to work for much of the U.S. and Canada. Google says Maps already factored in elevation when determining routes for cyclists, but until now the elevation data wasn’t made easily visible. Type in an origin and destination for biking, and the service now displays a graphical representation of the route’s elevation. Drag the cursor along the chosen route and the graphic shows the elevation changes at any given point. The total elevation change is also displayed.

Google Maps now features elevation profiles for bike routes. Google added biking directions to Google Maps and specialized maps that highlight bike routes a few years ago. If you are weak like me, though, and learned to bike in Holland, where the biggest obstacle is a dike, you don’t just want to know what streets to take, but also what hills you will have to huff your way up on the way to your destination. Until now, Google was no help there and you needed to go to third-party sites that mashed up elevation data with Google Maps routes. Now, however, Google has quietly added this feature to Google Maps directly. We asked Google about this and the company confirmed that this is indeed a new — and as of now unannounced — feature. It looks like the elevation profiles are available in all the 14 countries Google offers biking directions. These include Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden and the US.