By Stephen Messenger, Source: TreeHugger

For the last few years, the digital wisdom and guidance of Google Maps has helped cyclists throughout the U.S. and Canada arrive to their destinations safely and efficiently. But now that remarkable tool has hit a major milestone, and is getting a major upgrade.

According to Google, not only are such handy bike-route maps available for desktop and mobile users, cyclists using Google Maps Navigation (beta) can now mount their Android phones to their handlebars to receive turn-by-turn directions and navigation, as well as voice-guided directions.

This comes on the heels of Google Map’s recent expansion of its cycling route maps to an additional 10 countries — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

“We know there are lots of ways to get from here to there, which is why in 2010, we added biking directions to Google Maps in the U.S. and Canada, and continue to work to bring more biking features to more places,” writes Google’s Larry Powelson, in a blog post. “Today, there are more than 330,000 miles (equal to more than 530,000 kilometers, or half a gigameter) of green biking lines in Google Maps.”