This is very nice to have: Google Maps with bike-friendly directions. Up until now, I've used their walking directions for lengthy bike rides, and carefully evaulated and revised the provided route for potential pit falls. When you're doing, say, the 115 mile ride from Salem, MA to Norwich, VT, that's a pretty tedious and time consuming challenge.

Now, it's not immediately clear to me if I'd always want to go the route suggested -- as a road biker, it'd be a real bummer to suddenly find myself on 10 miles of rail trail w/ coarse gravel. But fundamentally, it's great to see Google acknowledge the fact that bikers are a unique category of travelers with some particular needs and vulnerabilities.

(Photo frrom here)