20 September 2009

Step 1: goto destination. There is no Step 2.

I did actually lol at this. The official london transport journey planner has an advanced option that you can check if you want to cycle, instead of the usual bus/tube/rail/boat planner options. Although I use the tfl planner all the time, I had never used the cycling option before but thought I'd give it a shot since I want to get to tower hill by bike. Here's the result:
No, there are no maps, diagrams, detailed routes, or, well, anything. This is genius in its unhelpfulness. I love it.

3 comments:

zim said...

brilliant!

it's such a refreshing change from those other results that are ridiculously roundabout.

Rick said...

The maps are there, just not immediately obvious. If you display the options, there shoudl be small map icons next to the start and end points. Yes, when you first click, it just shows whichever address you chose. But click on "wizard" in the lower right corner of the map and an animated bycycle scoots along the whole journey.

Using my old place in Clapham as a starting point and London Fields as the end, I learned that cycling is 12 minutes faster than any public trans option. Downside: The TFL planner gets the location of 3, Park Hill, Clapham SW4 wrong by about a quarter mile.

pyker said...

Wow! I never would've checked that. The route my little animated bike follows is not a very good one, but it's very cute. Cool.