Google Street View trikes map Britain's footpaths

Posted by David Walker on Mon 18 May 2009

You get to vote where the Google man goes

Some rural folk have already shown their anger to Google Street View cars, so you really wouldn't want to be the poor soul who gets to man the Google Street View tricycle round the British countryside this summer.

Google is introducing the trikes to fill in the gaps, capturing those hard to reach corners of the UK inaccessible to the car. Think footpaths, pedestrianised areas, coastal paths, historical monuments, castles and football stadiums as just a few examples. The idea is to capture not only the streets, but to offer virtual tours of our scenery and landmarks too. So if it's raining on a bank holiday, you can do the day trip from the comfort of your own home just by switching on your PC.

According to a Google spokesperson: 'Users will be able to virtually tour castles or monuments before visiting, or check out which side of a football stadium they need to be on before leaving the house. They will be added to the Street View tool in the same way as existing images.'

The Google Trike itself is described as 'a mechanical masterpiece comprising 3 bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel' and should be a common site during the summer months in the UK. Where he or she goes is up to you, with Google running a vote in conjunction with Visit Britain to pick the places most in need of photographing in 3D. Before you ask, there isn't an option for 'not my village'.

Link: Google Street View (via Cnet)