Cyclists create their own GPS maps

location based services

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch cyclists union ENFB has launched the first door-to-door route finder for bicycles, which is the result of a large volunteer project inspired by the collaborative Internet project Wikipedia.

One in every three trips in the Netherlands is done on a push bike and the country has thousands of bicycle lanes that are not accessible to cars. None of these bicycle lanes were known to navigation software or route finding devices.

"This is really a Dutch problem. Other countries have very few dedicated bike lanes and in those countries car route finders can be used by cyclists, too. But here in Holland, car route finders are unaware of the best cycle lanes," said Kees Bakker, project leader for the Dutch cycle route planner available at http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner.

In recent months, dozens of volunteers have mapped all roads and cycle lanes in the central province of Utrecht which has 1.17 million citizens.

The volunteers needed to be much more precise than commercial digital map makers for car navigation devices like Navteq (NVT.N) and Tele Atlas (TA.AS), jotting down details such as road surface, scenery and if a road is well lit.

"Detail is what cyclists need and what makes this so valuable. You need to be able to choose a safe route at night, and a racing cyclist wants a hard bike lane and no dirt roads," said 34-year-old Erik Jonkman, one of 70 volunteers.

Over a period of one month he spent 80 hours cycling the roads around his home and putting the data in the computer.

Bakker said: "We looked at projects like Wikipedia and figured a collaborative approach would also work well in this case. Cyclists love to share their favorite routes, and are often discussing them."

Jonkman said the collaborative approach offers unexpected benefits, such as the possibility to quickly correct errors.

The planner is already used by around 1,000 visitors a day who can also download the routes onto Garmin (GRMN.O) global positioning systems.
The cyclists union is in talks with other provinces to get access to maps. The goal is to cover the entire country.