Ride the City: Route Planning Service Lets Cyclists Choose Between Safe, Safer, and Quickest

Ride the City's "safer" route from the Central Library in Downtown to Dodger Stadium (Screenshot)

For cyclists who want to plan the best route to get from point a to b, a new service that began in NYC has just launched in Los Angeles. Ride the City lets users select among routes labeled "safe," "safer" or "quickest" (direct).

StreetsblogLA put the volunteer mapping interface to the test, using regular trips and comparing it to the current best-option for cyclists, Google Maps' bike routing:

Once the maps are up, Google maps shows bike infrastructure with green lines as does Ride the City. The difference here is Ride the City tells you what kind of infrastructure you’re going to ride on in the directions. Last, Ride the City lists, to the best of its knowledge, the bike shops near your route with little orange cones. If the map is missing your favorite bike shop, and our South L.A. reporter Sahra Sulaiman noted that almost all of her favorite shops in South L.A. were missing, you can get the shop added by emailing the name, location and contact info to info@ridethecity.com.

Riders, you now have more choices for mapping, so put some routes into Ride the City and see if you like where they send you.