Ride sharing, but not in the carpool lane

A new Web site aimed at motorcyclists lets users share their favorite pleasure rides for use in GPS navigation devices. The site, Sunday Morning Rides, uses Google maps and a few other Web widgets to let users either build a route or download one. It includes on- and off-road courses. Once you select a ride, you can download it as GPX (an XML file), GDB (Garmin mapsource), or KML (Google Earth). Currently, a large number of rides are posted all around the country. One of the coolest things about the site is that along with graphical and satellite maps, it also shows topographical maps.

The other cool thing about the site is the whole concept of GPS sharing. Although the site serves a specific niche--motorcycle riders with GPS devices--the idea of being able to share routes could apply to cars, hikers, and any other self-guided means of transportation. We'd like to see GPS devices besides Garmin's promote route sharing. There should be a common platform. You can send someone a destination address, but GPS devices tend to find the optimal route, rather than the most fun.

See also: GroupRider.com.