Gmaps Pedometer

Posted on June 18, 2008 One Comment

I rode my bike to the gym tonight. Was a little odd to start my workout already warmed up – not a bad thing though. The ride is easy enough and I think I’ll try to do this more often.

Once I got home I was curious about how far, exactly, I had ridden. I found a site that makes it very easy to find out: Gmaps Pedometer.

It is a reasonably simple web app that uses Google Maps to help you find distances. Anyone who walks, jogs, runs or bikes might find it useful when wondering about distances.

Heck, it’ll even give you a (weight-based) calories burned estimate.

Get started by using the map portion to find your area. I find that toggling the map to Satellite or Hybrid mode makes locating bike trails a lot easier. Click the record button and then double-click along the route to draw straight lines from point to point. When you’re done, you can even save the route and share it with folks (click that link)

As the route grows, so does the Total Distance counter. Turns out my ride tonight was just shy of 8 miles, which is decent (but very slack!). After a good workout, jumping back on the bike for much longer would’ve been a lot more daunting though.

Here’s part of my route:

It even pops little mile markers up along the way. I jumped off the trail right about the 2 mile marker on that route above and cut across an apartment complex and then a few blocks of surface streets to the gym. I see a better way a bit north of there for next time… And there’s a helpful bonus: future route planning.

If your route has lots of turns or curves, be prepared for lots of double-clicking. Each time you double-click it draws a straight line from that spot to the previous spot so you might have to “cut” some corners…

I’m a little late to the party on this one. Based on the About info, it’s been around almost 2 years! But I’ll be using it now that I’ve found it.

Tags: exercise, Google-Maps, maps, mashup