Adopt a Fire Hydrant on Google Maps

Here's a cool idea to ensure that fire hydrants remain accessible even when there is heavy snow.

Adopt-a-Hydrant lets anyone in Boston sign up to volunteer to clear a specific fire hydrant in the city when there is heavy snowfall. To adopt a fire hydrant users just need to click on its map marker and complete a short form.

On the usability front it is a bit annoying that the zoom control has been removed and that scroll-wheel zooming is also disabled on the map.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

A Google Map of Towing Spots

More than 200,000 vehicles were towed away in Boston between April 2009 and October 2011. Boston.com has created a Google Map to show where, why and when cars were towed in the city.

A heat map of the city gives a visual guide to the towing hot-spots in Boston. Users can mouse-over the map to view the total number of tows for any location. To aid users in navigation Boston.com have added to the map the names of major stores around the city.

Boston's Buses Live on Google Maps

With TransitSpy you can follow Boston's MBTA buses live on Google Maps.

Using the sidebar you can select any combination of MBTA bus routes and view in real-time the position of the buses on those routes. As well as the live buses all the stops on a route are displayed on the map. If you click on a bus-stop's map marker you can see how long you will have to wait until the next bus arrives.

TransitSpy MBTA

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Boston's Elastic Boundaries on Google Maps

Like many big cities Boston has very fluid neighborhood boundaries. Two people living next door to each other can often have very different ideas of which district they live in.

To try and clear up some of the confusion around Boston's boundaries Boston.com has created a Google Map that shows the different boundaries used by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, by the police, by the city and those determined by zip code.

Using the map you can drag the map pin around to view the different district boundaries at different locations.

Exploring Boston's Tangled Boundaries

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Boston Marathon Live Google Map

Runkeeper - Boston Marathon Live Map

A lot of users of Runkeeper are running today's Boston Marathon. You can follow them live on this Google Map.

The map shows the route of the marathon and thumbnail images of the runners placed at their current location. The map also includes mile markers so you can see how far the runners have left to race and an elevation chart of the route.

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Boston & London Marathons Mapped

In the next few days both the Boston and the London marathons will be run. If you want to check out the routes and find a good place to spectate then you should check out these Google Maps.

Virgin London Marathon Interactive Map

This year Virgin have added some new features to their Google Map of the London Marathon. You can still see the route of the marathon and view Street Views along the route but there are also now some great guides to help you watch the race.

The map now includes a time slider option that allows you to see where the wheelchair racers, the elite male & females runners and the mass race should be at different times of the day. The mile markers also contain information about what kind of entertainment you are likely to find at different locations around the route.

Via: Mapperz

Adidas: Boston Marathon in Street View

Adidas have produced a Google Maps app that lets you follow the whole of the Boston Marathon route in Street View.

The Boston Marathon Map lets you follow the route of the marathon using Google Maps Street View. You can navigate to points of interest on the marathon route and view an overlay on top of the Street View to enable you to jump forward to the next point of interest or go back to the previous POI.

The Boston Marathon app includes a Google Map of the route and a terrain chart.

Going the Distance - The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal's Going the Distance app includes Google Maps for the Boston Marathon, as well as the New York, San Francisco and Chicago marathons.

The map includes the route, an elevations chart and Street Views of the route. My favourite feature of the Wall Street Journals maps is the superb integration between the elevation chart and Street View. If you hover your mouse along the elevation chart the Street View will update to show the respective view. Very cool.

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iPhone vs Android in the Boston Marathon

RunKeeper

RunKeeper, the iPhone and Android phone run tracking application, has two contestants in today's Boston Marathon. Both runners will be tracked live on a Google Map.

Jason (with an iPhone) and Aaron (the Android phone) will both be running the race and their progress will be tracked using RunKeeper and Google Maps. If you go to the site at 10:30am EST you will be able to watch the race live on the map and find out whether the iPhone or the Android wins.

RunKeeper is a smart phone application that enables you to use the built-in GPS in your phone to track your outdoor runs, including duration, distance, pace, speed, elevation, calories burned, and view the path travelled on a Google Map.

The Boston Marathon map will demonstrate RunKeeper's new 'RunKeeper Live' feature that gives users the ability to broadcast an activity as it's happening in real time.

Also See

Adidas: Boston Marathon in Street View

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The Boston Marathon Map

Adidas: Boston Marathon in Street View

Adidas have produced a Google Maps app that lets you follow the whole of today's Boston Marathon route in Street View.

The Boston Marathon Map lets you follow the route of the marathon using Google Maps Street View. The map lets you navigate to points of interest on the marathon route and includes an overlay on top of the Street View to enable you to jump forward to the next point of interest or go back to the previous POI.

The Boston Marathon app includes a Google Map of the route and a terrain chart.

Hat-tip: StreetViewFunny.com

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Google Map Tracking Boston Buses

MBTA.com T-Tracker Trial

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority are currently trialling a Google Maps based live real-time bus tracking system for five bus routes. Using the trial map commuters can see the real-time locations of buses and obtain real-time arrival predictions for each bus-stop on a route.

Buses on the map are shown with numbered map markers that contain arrows indicating the direction of travel. Stops are shown as small red circles along the route. You can determine the name of a stop simply by moving the mouse over it and get arrival prediction by clicking the marker.

The trial seems to be being developed with the help of NextBus, who already provide real-time live bus tracking maps in San Francisco.

Other Train & Bus Tracking Maps

• Swiss Trains - every train in the Swiss rail network in real-time.
• Live Helsinki Transit Map
• Joey Tracker - map showing the real-time position of the shuttle buses for Tufts University in Boston.
• NextBus - shows in real-time San Francisco buses on a Google Map
• Local.ch - live tram tracking in Zurich
• Chicago Transit Authority Map - Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) real time bus tracking of routes and buses.

Flight Tracking Maps

• GMaps Flight Tracker - inbound flight maps to some busy U.S. airports: Atlanta, Boston, JFK New York, Los Angeles and Chicago
• North American flight tracker! - works for most commercial flights originating and arriving in the United States and/or Canada
• Radar - tracking flights over Zurich
  

Boat Tracking Maps

• MarineTraffic.com - a Google Map showing real-time information about ship movements throughout the world.
• Hi-Def San Francisco -real-time ship tracking in the San Francisco Bay
• Isle of Wight Live Ship Tracking - live tracking of ships around the Isle of Wight

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