Bikesharing has become a popular transportation alternative in several cities and there are now an estimated 1,600 bikeshare systems available globally. Google Maps previously introduced a feature that would show you real-time bikeshare information but it was only being tested out in New York City. Now they’re rolling out the feature to 24 cities in 16 countries so users can locate bikesharing stations near them, know if there are any available, and figure out how to get there from their current location.
This new feature is made possible because of a new global bikeshare data feed that has been directly incorporated into Google Maps. This is also in partnership with Ito World, a company that specializes in transit data. With this system, you’ll be able to pinpoint a bikeshare station that is near you and also know how many of the bikes, if any, are available there. If you’ve already finished using the bike, you’ll also know if there are spaces available for you to leave it at the nearest station.
You will have to know the names of bikeshare systems of course and then search for it on Google Maps. There are the usual filters available like “open now”, “visited”, “haven’t visited”, etc. Then you’ll see cards for the various stations that are in the area and on the upper right part of the card, it shows how many bikes are left like 16/56. You can tap on the Directions pill if you want to figure out how to get there or the Call pill (if available) if you need to call them for some reason.
This is part of course of Google Maps’ continued evolution to be more than just a navigation app for drivers. They’ve been adding features for mass transit like buses and trains and even to make businesses and establishments more visible on the app for you to visit. Expect more features to be introduced by Google soon.
Real-time bikesharing information is now available in the following cities: Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Chicago, Dublin, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kaohsiung, London, Los Angeles, Lyon, Madrid, Mexico City, Montreal, New Taipei City, New York City, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco Bay Area, São Paulo, Toronto, Vienna, Warsaw and Zurich.
