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Why Google Maps Fails in Amsterdam

Not Just Bikes

497,085 views

Made by humans for humans. No AI voices or generative AI was used in the making of this video.

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Relevant Links

Stop Signs Suck (and we should get rid of them)
https://nebula.tv/videos/not-just-bik...
Stop Signs Suck and We Should Get Rid of Them

Fietsersbond Routeplanner
https://nl.routeplanner.fietsersbond.nl/

Fietsknoop Route Planner
https://www.fietsknoop.nl/fietsroute-...

Toertje App:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

Amsterdam plusnetten en hoofdnetten infrastructuur
https://maps.amsterdam.nl/plushoofdne...

Ontvlechten van fiets en snelverkeer
https://www.verkeerskunde.nl/2014/06/...

Google Maps map data copyright Google

Maps from OpenStreetMap copyright open street map contributors:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright

The majority of footage in this video was filmed on location by Not Just Bikes with some stock footage licensed from Getty Images and other sources

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Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:47 Designing for drivers vs. people
3:00 Hoofdnetten & Plusnetten
3:50 Ontvlechten (unbundling)
6:00 Stop signs & one-way streets
7:56 Bicycle safety
10:50 Keeping cars out
12:41 Navigation for cars vs. bicycles
16:43 Car-bias in maps
20:10 Car-bias in directions
22:29 Conclusion
22:57 Thanks, Nebula, & Day Pass!

20 Comments

@NotJustBikes Creator 7 months ago Pinned

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@BobfatherGaming 8 months ago

I've often found that Pokemon Go is better than Google maps when walking around parks and such.

@unvergebeneid 8 months ago

In the beginning, Google Maps was basically useless for pedestrians. It's gotten better but it's still very obvious that it's made by people from a car-centric culture. Similarly to the automatic Youtube translation features, which reveal that bilingual people are not part of the bubble that the designers live in.

@rubabiskit 8 months ago

I’ve always wondered why non domestic cars take the crazy, traffic-infested route to the QPark off of Dam Square when they could have just parked at the RAI, grabbed the metro and be there in 5 minutes. Now I know.

@arthurofcharn 8 months ago

I do wish that Open Street Map had an advertising budget, and could be your sponsor for this video.

@mdb9523 8 months ago

Every criticism of google maps here is still true in the USA. In so many cities when I rent a bike the routes I get from google are filled with bizarre and dangerous route suggestions. Even with walking or transit I am second guessing google's every decision because maps is so car-oriented, it fails all the time.

@EvaristeWK 8 months ago

Amsterdam: We're removing bike lanes because there's no cars, so they're not needed.
Doug Ford: We're removing bike lanes to kill cyclists and cram as many single-occupant cars in as possible.

As an Ontarian who visited Amsterdam, I am beyond embarrassed on how car brained our politicians are here.

@Carloshache 8 months ago (edited)

Lol. Here in Sweden Google maps ignores ALL our many bikes paths. If I ask for any direction from my home here in Malmö (known as one of the most bike friendly cities) it will instantly send me out on one of the most dangerous narrow road with plenty of cars, even though there is a perfectly great bike lane running in the same direction very close by.
This is frankly insane.

@michaelmatzat 8 months ago

I noticed this in Hamburg Germany to. Maps desperately wants to move me along smelly loud main roads and ignores the nice green strips inbetwen.

@Swordfish728 8 months ago

Google Maps not only has bad walking/cycling data, they refuse to fix it even years after you report it. The local train station is connected to the town center by a 300 m bridge, which Google Maps has it marked as cars-only, despite having protected sidewalks. So instead walking directions give you a 10 km detour via a rusty rail bridge outside of town limits. They also refuse to accept walking paths that are not clearly visible from from satellite imagery i.e. covered by mature trees or passing through partially covered shopping streets.

@tymak_cz 8 months ago

Regrading google map car-centrinc approach for me is the most annoying fact that railways are basically invisible.

@MetalMachine131 8 months ago

1: Get a bunch of cyclist together using Google Maps
2: Bike traffic will be viewed as a traffic jam.
3: Cars get routed around to other places.
4: ???
5: Profit.

@bano363 8 months ago

10:36 this is peak street: Shops, pedestrians, bicycles, scenic path beside the river, trees - and not a car in sight. Such a thing to behold

@Wuddleboo 8 months ago

I also always wondered why Google Maps just doesn’t take the data of the millions of Dutch cyclists to use for their map planning… if you see 1000s of people every day cycling a different route then you have to adjust your maps to it.. it shows that cycling mapping is not high on their agenda

@R4Z3RHD 8 months ago

Komoot is the cycling navigation app I use in the Netherlands as a thuisbezorgd delivery driver because of the ability for me to filter routes by road surface type. I can filter out shared bike paths with cars and cobble streets so I get to my destination faster and smoother.

@IAMsterdam1071 8 months ago

Great insight, never realized the way Google displays the streets. The video also explains why I always see tourists biking along the Wibautstraat instead of alongside the river.

@fluffs5195 8 months ago

One of the most car-centric things on google maps is how small transit lines are. Even if you turn the hidden "transit layer" on, streetcars are only 1/5 as big as streets, metros are shown as 1/20th the size of freeways. Apple maps is even worse, Only OpenStreetMap offers a usable transit map mode.

@der_creative 8 months ago

What I always say "Google maps has many great features, but the map is not one of them"

@illuminlast 8 months ago

1:40 ...and, importantly, they assume all people can drive in the first place.

@MsUltrafox 8 months ago

In the US, it has happened that parents got reported to Child Services because they took a BIKE to school.
How can you teach your child self-reliance if they are always in the back seat and see nothing of the outside world?
Some don't even know the route to school.