Google Maps Wants To Help You Walk From Point A To Point B

People who are walking around cities often need point-to-point directions just as desperately as those in cars. Google figured this out, and has added walking directions to its Maps service. After a few test runs, I can say with confidence that it does a pretty good job, at least in NYC.If you're visiting a city as a tourist, there's no way to really get a feel for it other than on foot. Sure, you can hop on one of the (way overpriced) double-decker tourist buses in New York City and get one version of the city, but if you really want to get a feel for NYC and its myriad neighborhoods, walk it.

Business travelers who visit the Big Apple may not always have time to walk from appointment to appointment, but you might be surprised at how close your next meeting really is. Next time you need to go from one place to another, check with Google's walking directions to see if going on foot is a better option than hopping into a taxi.

Says Google, "You can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions, and we'll try to find you a route that's direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them. Just get directions as you normally would."

I tested the service out. At the moment, I happen to be sitting in a Starbucks on 8th Avenue, near 16th Street. Later, I have a meeting down in Greenwich Village. Using Google Maps, I entered the addresses and asked for directions. Since NYC is full of one-way streets, it gave me circuitous driving directions to get from my current location to where my meeting will be held later, correctly following all the streets in their proper directions. You can see the route here.

Since I'll be walking, I clicked on a new menu option that says "Walking Directions." Google Maps gave me an entirely new route (visible here), one which takes me directly to where I need to go without following all the one-way streets all over the place.

I tested a few more addresses. Google got the walking directions right every time. You should check it out, too.