On Local & Maps in India
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Drive, walk, motorbike or Cycle to your destination.
Have you ever noticed the amount of homogeneity that exists in the roads of the western world? I am pretty familiar with California and spotting a motorbike is as rare as spotting a mosquito. It seems like vast majority of them are, infact, on the same type of vehicle ( a car) and hence are most likely to take the same route/direction given two places. And so Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and all of these guys have just one type of route. Fair enough.
Bring India in and the equation changes quite phenomenally. Just like our people, vehicles on our roads are of various types. Between two and six wheels, we have all the kind of Vehicles known to man kind running on our roads and each one of them is as important as the other.
Now, let me build a hypothesis on top of that previous statement. Arguably, The same person travelling between the same two given places may take a different route depending on the kind of vehicle he is on.
I, for one, prefer the side roads (gallis) and small roads that are less polluted and less crowded over main roads when I am on a motorbike. I am willing to ride a few hundred meters extra if I can skip a few junctions/signals which are a big bottleneck on traffic speeds. But when I am in a car, I would rather stick to the main roads because the condition of side roads are unpredictable. Plus, you never know if that big gravel truck is parked blocking the entire street. But, whenever I take the cycle, I really want to avoid main roads completely if possible, because, they are simply not safe.
There are very many ways to get to a place. Sometimes, you want to take the fastest route, Sometimes the shortest. But the kind of vehicle never used to play a part. But, now it does. At Yahoo! India maps. Search for a route and watch out for buttons on the right pane. Choose the one that fits you well and drive safe and with a smile.
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Have you ever noticed the amount of homogeneity that exists in the roads of the western world? I am pretty familiar with California and spotting a motorbike is as rare as spotting a mosquito. It seems like vast majority of them are, infact, on the same type of vehicle ( a car) and hence are most likely to take the same route/direction given two places. And so Google Maps, Yahoo Maps and all of these guys have just one type of route. Fair enough.
Bring India in and the equation changes quite phenomenally. Just like our people, vehicles on our roads are of various types. Between two and six wheels, we have all the kind of Vehicles known to man kind running on our roads and each one of them is as important as the other.
Now, let me build a hypothesis on top of that previous statement. Arguably, The same person travelling between the same two given places may take a different route depending on the kind of vehicle he is on.
I, for one, prefer the side roads (gallis) and small roads that are less polluted and less crowded over main roads when I am on a motorbike. I am willing to ride a few hundred meters extra if I can skip a few junctions/signals which are a big bottleneck on traffic speeds. But when I am in a car, I would rather stick to the main roads because the condition of side roads are unpredictable. Plus, you never know if that big gravel truck is parked blocking the entire street. But, whenever I take the cycle, I really want to avoid main roads completely if possible, because, they are simply not safe.
There are very many ways to get to a place. Sometimes, you want to take the fastest route, Sometimes the shortest. But the kind of vehicle never used to play a part. But, now it does. At Yahoo! India maps. Search for a route and watch out for buttons on the right pane. Choose the one that fits you well and drive safe and with a smile.
Labels: bikingdirections, cyclingdirections, directions, routing, walkingdirections, yahoomaps yahooindiamaps
¶ 2:25 PM 3 comments links to this post
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Saturday, November 24, 2007
BTIS traffic Comes to chennai. And to Yahoo India Maps
So, You all have heard about this wonderful little company called Mapunity trying to take on the daring problem of Traffic information services which nobody thought was possible to solve in India? If you havent, visit, their Bangalore, Hyderabad and recently, Chennai Traffic information services. Chennai traffic is still in Beta and was released sometime last week. If you are from Chennai and if you find something glaringly wrong (with respect to traffic, that is), make sure you let the guys know.
BTIS has also put out a little mashup with Yahoo India Maps, for Bangalore. If you ever thought the basic maps of BTIS wasnt enough, then you know where to go.
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BTIS has also put out a little mashup with Yahoo India Maps, for Bangalore. If you ever thought the basic maps of BTIS wasnt enough, then you know where to go.
Labels: btis, drivingdirections, maps, mapunity, routing, traffic, yahooindiamaps
¶ 8:51 AM 1 comments links to this post
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Yahoo India Maps, Now with Driving directions
Yahoo India Maps has just released driving directions for destinations inside of India. Ofcourse, locations in NA and EU work as well. There are a lot of easter eggs hiding all over. Read about it at ycoolthing. Go find your favorite directions here.
Go Anywhere!
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Go Anywhere!
Labels: drivingdirections, maps, routes, routing, yahoo, yahooindia, yahooindiamaps
¶ 5:03 PM 0 comments links to this post
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