At long last, Google Maps has routes specifically for bikes.

With the click of a mouse, the new feature allows you to plot the best (and flattest!) ride from Point A to Point B. Several cities, including New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, have bike-specific mapping sites. But Google is rolling it out in 150 cities nationwide and announcing it Wednesday at the 10th Annual Bike Summit in Washington, D.C.

“This has been a top-requested feature from Google Maps users for the last couple years,” says Shannon Guymon, product manager for Google Maps. “There are over 50,000 signatures on a petition.”

The news thrilled bike advocates, who have for years been pushing — and petitioning — the search giant to include bike routes on Google Maps. No longer do they have to rely upon paper maps or open-source DIY map hacking or crazy-cool helmet-mounted heads up iPhones.

“This new tool will open people’s eyes to the possibility and practicality of hopping on a bike and riding,” says Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “We know people want to ride more, we know it’s good for people and communities when they do ride more — this makes it possible. It is a game-changer, especially for those short trips that are the most polluting.”

Cyclists will have to map their victory lap from their desks, because Google’s cool mapping tool is available only on a computer for now.

“Making the bike-route tool available on Google Maps for mobile devices is a high priority,” Guymon says. But it’s a priority without a launch date.

To create the mapping tool, Google developed an algorithm that uses several inputs — including designated bike lanes or trails, topography and traffic signals — to determine the best route for riding. The map sends you around, not over, hills. But if you really want to tackle that Category 1 climb, you can click and drag the suggested route anywhere you like, just like you can with pedestrian or driving routes. Users can suggest changes or make corrections to routes using the ever-present “report a problem” feature on Google Maps.

Google kicked its bike-mapping effort into high gear in October when it started using improved datasets that provided more specific information about trails, street details and more granularity on college campuses. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy provided Google with information on 12,000 miles of bike trails nationwide, and the League of American Bicyclists helped gather data on bike lanes and so forth.

“We’ve got a five-person team in Seattle that has spent the majority of its time working on this project since October,” says Guymon.

To test the tool, bike-commuting Google employees vetted suggested routes against their own experience, pointing out discrepancies on routes or time allowances.

Google Maps for bikes has a unique look and feel. Bike trails are prime cycling turf — “They’re like the highways for cyclists,” Guymon says — so they’re indicated in dark green. Streets with dedicated bike lanes are light green. And streets that don’t have a bike lane but are still a decent route because of their topography, light traffic or other factors are indicated by dotted green lines.

Don’t go looking for turn-by-turn GPS-based navigation though. That feature remains strictly auto-centric.

Freelance reporter Mary Catherine O’Connor lives in San Francisco, with her dog, husband and three bikes.

Photo: Bikeportland.org/Flickr

It doesn’t look like a car, and it doesn’t look like it would fly, but what is believed to be the world’s oldest “roadable aircraft” is for sale.

The antique was built in 1934 by Frank Skroback and at the very minimum provides proof that people have long dreamed of cars that can be flown like airplanes. Or are they airplanes that can be driven like cars? No matter, because whatever you call it, it’s being auctioned this weekend in Atlanta.

In addition to the wild machine, the winning bidder scores extensive documentation, including the 1921 patent on the design and correspondence demonstrating Skroback’s attempt to sell his vehicle.

This isn’t the first flying car to hit the block. A Taylor Aerocar was auctioned more than a year ago. The Taylor is probably the most famous — and successful — example of an aircraft you can drive. Or car you can fly. Unlike the Aerocar, nobody can seem to find proof of Skroback’s vehicle ever taking flight. It looks like little more than a fuselage with six small wings attached.

Red Baron’s Antiques, which is selling the plane, says it is 21 feet long, and each wing has a 7-foot span. Those wings look like they may come up a bit short in providing enough lift. But even if the wings could lift the stubby fuselage off the ground, a lack of any substantial vertical control surfaces would likely mean controlled flight would be tricky at best. There are some small rudder-like appendages on the rear wings, but they hardly look big enough to provide any sort of directional stability.

No word on what the engine is, but with the the obvious drag and small wings, our guess is that it had better be more powerful than it appears if this thing has any hope of even getting the tail wheel off the ground. It’s safe to say the guys at Terrafugia have nothing to worry about, in terms of somebody putting Skroback’s contraption into production.

Photo: Red Baron’s Antiques

We won’t see electric cars racing through the streets of Paris in June. They’ll be racing through the streets of Barcelona in October instead.

The EMXGP pulled the plug, if you’ll pardon the pun, on racing in the City of Light and pushed back the race date to give teams more time to develop their cars. Mark the new date — Oct. 16 and 17 — on your calendars.

eGrandPrix Spain kicks off a week of activities surrounding sustainable technological development on the road and on the track. The idea is to show that going green doesn’t mean going slow. In addition to the eGrandPrix, there’s the Zero Carbon Transport Conference and the TTXGP electric motorcycle racing series grand finale in Albacete on Oct 23 and 24.

All told we’re looking at a big stage for green racing. More info about the conference, tickets and all the rest expected soon. Stay tuned.

Photo: Tesla Motors

French automaker Peugeot-Citroen is going nuts for electric vehicles, but rather than building them it will slap its logo on boatloads of Mitsubishis.

The Japanese company has agreed to build 100,000 i-MiEV electric cars for the French company under a contract that runs through 2015, according to Automotive News Europe. It’s a smart move for everyone involved. Beyond helping Mitsubishi boost volume, cut costs and recoup its investment in the electric runabout, the deal allows Peugeot-Citroen to quickly and easily compete against Renault in the electric arena.

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is determined to get EVs on the road this year. Nissan promises to have the Leaf EV in showrooms by November, and Renault rolls out an EV next year. Peugeot-Citroen agreed last year to buy 25,000 cars from Mitsubishi, then doubled the order late last year and again in February, according to ANE. The French company wants to sell 25,000 electric vehicles annually, split evenly among its two brands, but hitting that target will take awhile because Mitsubishi is still ramping up battery production. The Japanese company has the capacity to build just 9,000 batteries in the next year.

The Japanese-French EV will be called the Peugeot iOn and the Citroen C-Zero. Although mechanically identical to the iMiEV, they will have restyled bumpers and interiors and “different handling characteristics.” Peugeot-Citroen brand director Jean-Marc Gales told ANE the cars will be available by the end of the year. They’ll cost about 30,000 Euros, which works out to $40,770.

“We are not ruling out fleet sales, but our main target is urban private buyers with a sense of style and the environment,” Gales said.

As for the iMiEV, it’s already on sale for fleet use in Japan. Consumers will be able to buy them starting next month. The car arrives in Europe at the end of the year and in the United States in 2011.

The four-seat iMiEV uses a 16 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery with a claimed range of 100 miles and a recharge time of seven hours when plugged into a 220-volt line. Propulsion comes from a 47 kilowatt (63 horsepower) AC syncronous motor. Top speed is 80 mph.

Photo: Peugeot

The postal service likes the Bright Idea and wonders if it would make a good delivery truck.

The U.S. Postal Service has invited Bright Automotive to put an electric drivetrain in a standard-issue mail truck. Once the truck is ready to roll, the postal service will add it to its fleet for real-world testing in the Washington, DC area. The company joins the EV pioneers at AC Propulsion in developing prototype trucks for the postal service, which is considering ways to begin electrifying its fleet of 142,000 vehicles.

Although Bright unveiled its Idea plug-in hybrid delivery truck last year, postal brass want the Indiana company to electrify a Grumman LLV, or “Long Life Vehicle,” typically used for mail delivery. The startup automaker says adapting its technology and bringing EVs to the world’s largest civilian fleet will save the postal service big bucks.

“The adaptation of the electric drive system from our production vehicle uniquely distinguishes Bright Automotive’s LLV conversion in terms of technology, durability and cost,” CEO John E. Waters said in a statement. “In addition, our analysis and experience in vehicle electrification, vehicle ownership and financing, fleet maintenance, service, and infrastructure development, has shown that an electrified fleet will save the USPS millions of dollars annually, eliminate tons of emissions, and reduce dependence on oil.”

Bright Automotive plans to deliver the truck to the postal service in July. It will hit the streets of DC for one year to evaluate its performance.

Photo: Flickr / Brian Auer

Today is the 60th anniversary, again, of one of the most recognizable and beloved vehicles to ever clatter down the road.

The exact anniversary of the Volkswagen Type 2, known affectionately as the Microbus or just the Bus, is open to interpretation. Volkswagen says it’s 1947, when Dutch VW importer Ben Pon first sketched the design. You could argue it was 1949, when CEO Heinz Nordhoff approved production. Or you could say today is day because the Bus as we know and love it — split windshield, rounded front bumper that hugged the body, woefully underpowered engine — was produced from March 8, 1950 until 1967.

Since we’re the ones publishing the blog and we’ve got a cool pic of a vintage van, that’s the date we’re using. It’s also the date Life magazine is using, and it’s published a gallery of photos of Buses through the years.

VW built the first-gen Bus until 1967. The second-gen traded the vee’d split windshield for a flat windshield and a boxier body. The Bus hit the end of the line in Europe and the United States in 1979. Volkswagen sold a few gazillion of them over the years, and the hippies and surfers made ‘em famous. Our favorite is the top-of-the-line Samba-Bus, also known as the Deluxe (pictured). Gotta love the polished aluminum side trim, that huge fabric sunroof and 23 — count ‘em, 23 — windows.

The only thing that made it any cooler was the optional the safari windows that put hinges on the windshield glass so it opened out.

Photo: Andreas Feininger / Time and Life

The masses of Autopia readers have spoken. After enduring a pummeling at your hands over our choices of the best snowicane cars, we invited you to tell us what you’d drive when the drifts are taller than you are. And damned if you didn’t come up with an impressive list.

A few of them were completely impractical — ironic, given the hell you gave us for the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S, a car we’ve actually driven in the snow many times — and a couple of them don’t, you know, exist. But that doesn’t make them any less awesome.

And so, with no further ado, here are the 10 perfect “snowicane cars” as selected by the readers of Wired.com.

Photo of a caravan in Mongolia on Aug. 16, 2009: neurmadic aesthetic/Flickr