On the newly revised layout and now predominantly blue start page of Google Maps, the user is now able to access the pedestrian feature by a click on “Calculate Route”. Using a dropdown menu, users can choose whether to generate directions per car or foot.

As laid out by Google programmer Andy Schwerin in the Google Lat Long Blog, for a pedestrian route plan (contrary to those for motorists) one-way streets or “no left turns” are of course ignored, and parks and pedestrian zones are now included in the results.

At present, not everything functions correctly. In our own test, conducted by Lokalesucheblog.de searching for a route in Stuttgart, Google for example ignored paths through major city parks, such as the Schlossgarten, and completely missed smaller green areas. Suggested were also routings where no paths exist.  This problem has been recognized by the Googlers… Schwerin explains that for this and other reasons, the program is still in beta-testing.  the Googlers are working on the issues, actively gathering new data on footways.  Google also encourages user feedback, so that this feature can be improved upon.

Interestingly in the post, Schwerin mentions that the link “Footpath” [de=Fußweg] only appears when the foot-route result is no longer than ten kilometers.  This was not the case on the old site, but has apparently now been changed.  However, one can actually view the foot-route from Stuttgart to Hamburg, which takes five days and 17 hours, assuming the walker does not take any breaks.  According to the site (at present) a walker could wander from Munich to London in eight days and ten hours.

Google Maps is not the only local search service offering pedestrian navigation.  Services such as the local search engine suchen.de has long offered a pedestrian option, limiting the distance of the route to twenty kilometers.  Suchen.de, contrary to Google, does indeed cover parks, and doesn’t deliver routings without sidewalks.  Live Search Maps, Microsoft’s local search service also offers foot ways up to 30 kilometers.