One of my little pets when I use Google Maps in a new city or country is the lack of information about the walkway. The app might tell me that it takes twenty minutes to get from one point to another, but it can realistically be much more than when you consider crossroads, especially if it’s not exactly on my way, but ‘ needs a little detour. Google is now beginning to correct this by implementing extremely accurate street details in four major cities, which include crossroads, pedestrian islands and more.
The change was announced in August last year, but we only saw it in December. The rollout seems to be reaching more users, even if it’s still not available to everyone. We also know the four cities where these details will be available:
- London, United Kingdom (Central London)
- New York City, USA
- San Francisco, USA
- Tokyo, Japan (Central Tokyo)
To check it out, visit one of these cities on your phone and zoom in enough to get to street level. Once you are there, and if the feature is available to you, you will see several improvements. Road widths, rounded corners and even vegetation along the road will be accurately depicted. Crossroads, median and pedestrian islands are indicated, so you know exactly where to cross the street. And parks show the right width of walkways in dark green as well as any stairs in gray, providing better accessibility information for anyone in a wheelchair or with a stroller.
We’ve taken some comparative screenshots from the four cities below to show you what to expect.
Tokyo
Left: Tokyo Intersection for. Right: Now with transitions.
London
Left: London Roads and Park Formerly. Right: Crossroads, pedestrian islands and vegetation along the road.
New york
Left: Central Park formerly. Right: Note the more realistic paths (dark green) and stairs (gray).
San Francisco
Left: Large intersection in San Francisco before. Right: Accurate road widths and arches, footpaths, pedestrian islands.
These street-level details are working as a server-side update, regardless of the Maps version and beta status. Even on the same device, you may notice that they appear when you are logged in with one account, but return when you switch to another.
