By John Hainsworth, Senior Transportation Specialist, Cross County Connection Transportation Management Association

 

You want to take a bike ride….not just any zip through the local park, but a real, honest-to-goodness RIDE. An outing when you will need to pack a few energy bars, extra water, and maybe a spare pair of socks. Now we’re talking! Right. Let’s get ready. Bike? Check. Helmet? Check. Energy bars we were just talking about? Check. Bike tour trail map? The one you could have sworn you once had? Hmm. Better “check online.” Half an hour and two dozen fruitless web site visits later, you’ve munched down a health bar, but still are not out the front door. What to do?

 

The answer is a click away at driveless.com. -- a free, Google technology-based, online, interactive transportation map created by Cross County Connection TMA. With this dynamic mapping application, users now have the ability to find the nearest bicycle route or bus stop, and search the surrounding area for sites and destinations. While bicycle routes and public transit are the highlight of the map, the addition of regional commuting information makes it a sort of “magic compass” for getting around the southern New Jersey counties of Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden and Burlington.

If you have internet access to the map, we encourage you to follow along as we present the information available at the click of a mouse. Start by visiting this link: http://www.driveless.com/
interactivegooglemap.html

 

How was this map made?
The open source mapping capability provided by Google Maps allows Cross County to publish data from its Geographic Information System (GIS) onto the internet. Different layers of information can be mapped out to show bus routes, rail stations, or bicycle routes available in a particular area. The map controls are identical to any Google map available on the web; no special downloads are required to use the application.

 

The transportation data is draped over a background street map or aerial image provided by Google, which ensures the background information is current and enables Cross County to focus on the accuracy of bicycle route and transit information. Adding another function to the map is the Google search engine, a powerful tool helping to identify any destination and the closest transportation to get there.

 

What information is in the map?
Over the past five years, Cross County has been building a GIS data library of all available transportation in the region. On the right side of the map, users can check the box next to each layer which will display a