Exploring Google Maps

[PennPlanner]

No, it's because the market loves cul-de-sacs. Houses on cul-de-sacs sell for a premium over similar houses not on cul-de-sacs.

Finally, an outsider confirms it...thank you. I have been fighting cul-de-sacs for years and finally got some pretty good policy passed in my last job.

Many of our 108 (plus or minus) municipalities that have no reason for being are still stuck in the 1960's with their street patterns. Is this a reflection of the planners or the dumbass elected officials?

[Wannaplan?]

Any Street View users out there? I use it quite a bit. I was up north for the week-end and I had a great idea - River View! The Googlers need to put their 360-degree cam in a boat an go down the Mississippi!

[JNA]

I had a great idea - River View! The Googlers need to put their 360-degree cam in a boat an go down the Mississippi!

Include The Ohio River.

[Bear Up North]

Include The Ohio River.

Also include the Missouri River. All three rivers would be interesting....

Ohio
Golden Triangle (Confluence!)
Huge power plants
Big dams
Steep terrain
Small river towns (such as Madison, IN)
Louisville
Evansville

Mississippi
Origins (Lake Itasca, MN)
North woods
Twin Cities
Steep bluffs along Wisconsin border
Dubuque
Quads
St. Louis
Cairo
Memphis
Big dams
Big power plants
Barges and barges
New Orleans and the delta

Missouri
Headwaters (Montana, mountains - stunning!)
Huge dams and huge man-made lakes
Terrain with little to no trees (upper watercourse)
Small towns
Indian reservations
Dakota rolling hills
Bismarck (with tall Capitol Building in sight)
Iowa bluffs
Cows and corn
Kansas City
St. Louis

Bear

[Rygor]

At least along the Mississippi you can go down the Great River Road, already. I'm not sure if any other major rivers have anything like that where you can travel almost the whole length of the river adjacent to it on a continuous road network. The Ohio might. I'm pretty sure the Missouri doesn't.

[Wannaplan?]

What about ESRI's Mapping for Everyone... anyone using that? I've tried ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer, but it's not as intuitive for me as Google Earth.

[Jazzman]

This thread is being introduced to provide a method for the geography geeks and satellite image geeks that hang in Club Cyburbia to share hints and directions for exploring Google Maps.....and locating cool places and images. This Bear spends a lot of time wandering around the world.....especially the states......using Google Maps to do all of the following.....

Follow routes that I have personally traveled on.
Look for buildings that I have been in.
Follow routes that I have read about, heard about, or am just curious about.
Search for industrial areas, to get a feel for the logistics of movement and place.
Check out airport design.
Evaluate the limited-access highway networks for cities and metros.
Determine community growth by evident suburbs (cul-de-sac land).
Consider the overall impression left to the viewer, based on the season when the satellite images were taken.
Gaze into and at natural wonders.
Explore quirky and unique road patterns.
Follow railroad routings.
Follow river and stream routings.
Gaze in awe at the size of waterfront homes.
Yadda.

Many of these things may be near-and-dear to Cyburbians. Check out the suggested "look-see" locations. Provide some of your own, too. Let's go exploring!
_____

Vilnius, Lithuania.....Just northwest of the CBD is a rather unique roundabout. A portion of it is elevated over a main route. The roundabout helps feed that main route.

Toronto VS Twin Cities.....If you spend some time (at the same resolution) comparing Toronto with the Twin Cities, you get a real visual understanding of the difference between a "car-friendly metro" and a "pedestrian-friendly metro". The Twins are criss-crossed by limited-access highways. Toronto has some of the widest limited-access highways.....but very few considering its' huge size.

Ladd Circle, Portland.....Portland, OR.....just SE of the CBD is a unique neighborhood. It has a circle street in the center, with obvious "spikes".

Moscow & Crowded Roads.....The thing that I noticed about the limited-access and main highways of Moscow was that they all have very heavy traffic. Apparently, freedom provides vehicles.

Bedford Park Railyard......The huge CSX railyard in Bedford Park (Chicago, just south of Midway Airport) is incredible. A railfan's dream.
_____

What explore you?

Bear

Just thought I'd revitalize this thread because I happen to be playfully "wandering around" suburban Toronto on Google Maps. Why can't neighborhoods in the U.S. look like this??????

Go to Google Maps and type in this address to see what I'm talking about:

Fawcett Trail / Sewells Rd / Hupfield Trail, Toronto ON


Here we have a residential neighborhood with decent sized homes that fosters a strong sense of community through the employment of sidewalks on both sides of EVERY street and EVERY block, homes that are built close together (in some cases neighbors even share driveways), and to top it all off.............a transit stop right there in the neighborhood!

Looks like the perfect place to raise a family. Sadly I believe that a developer could never sell a neighborhood like this in the States, at least not here in the South. It's a cultural thing that allows this to happen (Canada's collectivist culture versus the United States' individualist, privacy-driven culture).

Seriously, I'm in love with the way Toronto neighborhoods are designed. I just provided one example. Wander around any residential community in the area and you will see that they are all designed like this.

[Bear Up North]

SNIP SNIP SNIP
Go to Google Maps and type in this address to see what I'm talking about:

Fawcett Trail / Sewells Rd / Hupfield Trail, Toronto ON

SNIP SNIP SNIP

Seriously, I'm in love with the way Toronto neighborhoods are designed. I just provided one example. Wander around any residential community in the area and you will see that they are all designed like this.

Every time this Bear has been in Toronto I have noticed the massive amounts of newer neighborhoods, especially north of "The 401" and in the Mississauga area. Methinks that the movement out of Quebec in the 1970s led to much of that new construction, new neighborhoods.

Bear

[dvdneal]

Any Street View users out there? I use it quite a bit. I was up north for the week-end and I had a great idea - River View! The Googlers need to put their 360-degree cam in a boat an go down the Mississippi!

If you go to my house on street view you can see my old jeep in the street. My friend's house has his bug out front.

I love using it to do a site visit without leaving the office.

[kjel]

Am I dork for reporting my township being incorrectly located on Google Maps. I mean it's one thing that my home address shows up half a block away in the middle of a parking lot, but another entirely when you search the town's name and it comes up about 2 miles away!

[JNA]

No your are not.
I would imagine they depend on people reporting to improve their accuracy.
Now it is another matter in the timelyness of their corrections.

[kjel]

No your are not.
I would imagine they depend on people reporting to improve their accuracy.
Now it is another matter in the timelyness of their corrections.

Well they sent me a response saying they opened a ticket for the issue. My town is still mislocated. It's a recent change though that I noticed when I was looking for directions somewhere. I didn't bother putting my entire address in and just put the town and looking at the directions list pondered why it had my creeping and crawling down a rather congested road. Looking at the map I saw where the town was marked and it was about 2 miles off the mark and where it was marked is an area that doesn't even border the town.

[Planit]

Nice pic of the Planit home. The dogwoods and redbuds are in full bloom, but nobody's home. The guy next door to my uncle's house is mowing his grass - other than that, nothing going on at any of my former houses or my grandparents places.

[Chet]

HFH - the place is Davis-Monthan AFB in Tuscon, Arizona

Google Image Search "Airplane Graveyard"

[Bear Up North]

This Bear has spent considerable time exploring New York City and the NYC roads, expressways, parkways, tunnels, bridges, railroads, railyards, industrial areas, and waterfront areas. Urban geeks must love exploring Metro NYC.....a giant canvas that makes you wonder just how they make it all work.

BTW....I have been using BING rather than GOOGLE for my adventures. Better, IMO.

A good companion to searching NYC and environs is.....

http://www.nycroads.com/roads/

Have fun.

Bear

[Jazzman]

This Bear has spent considerable time exploring New York City and the NYC roads, expressways, parkways, tunnels, bridges, railroads, railyards, industrial areas, and waterfront areas. Urban geeks must love exploring Metro NYC.....a giant canvas that makes you wonder just how they make it all work.

BTW....I have been using BING rather than GOOGLE for my adventures. Better, IMO.

A good companion to searching NYC and environs is.....

http://www.nycroads.com/roads/

Have fun.

Bear

I like that website, also nycsubway.org is a good one.

Why do some cities on Google Maps have crystal clear, HD images while others do not, sometimes within a few blocks of each other? I hate the blurry images that most cities in the U.S. have.

[Bear Up North]

Why do some cities on Google Maps have crystal clear, HD images while others do not, sometimes within a few blocks of each other? I hate the blurry images that most cities in the U.S. have.

That's a prime reason for switching to BING maps. Much clearer resolution, even when in very close.

Bear

[Jazzman]

That's a prime reason for switching to BING maps. Much clearer resolution, even when in very close.

Bear

Just checked out Bing. It is cool.

[Wannaplan?]

Just checked out Bing. It is cool.

Be sure to check out Photosynths under the "Map Apps" button.

This one is a path in Detroit: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=...0-7bffaeef3c9f

[Planit]

Somewhere in Spain...

http://thehiphopconsultant.wordpress...e-street-view/

[Bear Up North]

The satellite image now shows an angry Bear.....



Every time I try to use Google Maps, after a short period of use it stops letting me move across a city, etc. Just kind of locks in one place.

That's why I switched to Bing Maps.

But Bing just made what they might think is a minor (and fun) (not ) change.....as you move across a city the first image is in very large font and eventually morphs to normal font. Drives me crazy.

And it was a short drive.

WTFF am I doing wrong? (Includes "flying". )

Bear

[Gedunker]

I don't know what's going on for you my bruin friend, but bing has new photos of my fair burg (last winter, as best as I can tell), but when you change views or scroll over slightly it slides into an older c. 2007 version. Then, getting back to the newest image is a crap shoot. Frustrating.

[Dan]

Best Google Street View scene ever.

[kjel]

Best Google Street View scene ever.

Someone had a fun day at work!

[Veloise]

^^ Do a 180° and you can follow...


three of the cars around the track.