Google Maps Adds New Green Travel Features Across Europe

Google announced a new set of environmentally friendly transport options on Google Maps to European consumers. The enhancements are a part of the broader effort by the company to lower carbon emissions by encouraging cleaner forms of travel and are intended to assist people and local authorities in making more environmentally friendly choices when traveling through urban areas and on trips.

One of the most notable additions is broadening artificial intelligence (AI)-based travel recommendations. The feature provides walking and public transportation as travel options when they are actually just as quick as driving. Released in more than 60 cities around the world, such as Paris, London, and Tokyo, the feature is now rolling out to other European cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Warsaw. Google says the feature has already prevented tens of millions of car journeys since going live.

Cyclists will also benefit from major upgrades to the platform. Google Maps now includes more precise information for cycling routes in 17 other cities, of which nine are in Europe: Hamburg, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Rome, Zurich, Budapest, Vienna, and Brussels. Cyclists have access to information such as whether bike lanes exist, traffic levels expected, and gradient gain throughout the journey. It has 125,000 kilometers of bike lanes sponsored internationally through data sharing with city governments and transport authorities.

Drivers are also being presented with solutions to cut the carbon footprint. Google's fuel-saving routing option that provides instructions to drive fuel or energy efficiently is a success story. It has already been utilized for more than 500 million trips per month. The firm estimates that the number of greenhouse gas emissions saved by the feature alone in 2024 stands at 2.7 million metric tonnes — equivalent to removing 630,000 petrol-powered cars from roads for a year.

There is also a significant feature update through growing low-emission zone (LEZ) notifications. The notifications inform users if their vehicle is allowed to enter particular LEZs and provide routing suggestions if there are limitations. Hitherto exclusive to London and Berlin, the feature will be extended to over 1,000 LEZs in Europe, with more zones in Italy, Sweden, and Austria.

Apart from helping private users, Google is also supporting municipal authorities in combatting traffic congestion and emissions with "Project Green Light." It leverages AI and anonymized driving behavior information to support optimization of traffic light timings and consequently improve traffic flow and minimize standstill time at crossroads. The project has now been implemented recently in Vilnius, Lithuania, and now covers 20 cities on four continents.

These recent features are all part of Google's larger initiative to inject sustainability throughout its properties, such as Search, Lens, and its AI model Gemini. Europeans are invited to try the new functionality while organizing summer holiday travel, business travel, or everyday chores, with options for every preference and type of transportation.

Google highlights how such innovations not just benefit individuals in reducing their impact on the planet but also assist nations and cities to meet climate objectives. The tools provide solutions that are productive, simple, and increasingly necessary in the context of rising emissions and urbanization.

With sustainability charting the course of mobility in the future, Google's launch of green features on Maps is a growing trend for technology firms to provide solutions that align with global environmental goals. Walking, cycling, public transport, or cleaner driving – consumers today have more means of making smarter, cleaner travel decisions in Europe.

Source & Credits
This article is grounded on data made public by Google in a blog and reported by The Business Times