The Pima Association of Governments’ mapping department is working to swap out the current local Google bike directions with their own more accurate maps.

Ann Chanecka a PAG transportation planner, said their GIS department, which is in charge of maintaining data including map information, discovered Google’s data wasn’t entirely accurate.

They printed out the Google map’s bicycle network and compared it to our regional map and found that they lacked a lot of facilities,” Chanecka said.

Josh Pope, PAG’s GIS manager, said he wasn’t sure where Google’s data came from or how old it was.

“It may be current data, but it’s just bad data,” Pope said.

According to Pope, Pima County maintains the most comprehensive data about bicycle infrastructure in Tucson and Pima County, but didn’t have the time or resources to submit it to Google. Pima County told Pope if he wanted to do the legwork, the county would let him use the data.

The county’s data is used for the creation of the regional bike map.

Pope said because PAG would be in charge of submitting the data to Google, it could create a problem because the county owns it.

“We are at the mercy of them approving this process,” Pope said.

Pope said he has no idea what the process will be like when the data is submitted because they are submitting information that would replace the existing maps, not just improve them.

“Everything points you toward, ‘help us improve the data’ as opposed to a wholesale swap out of the Google data for another owners data set,” Pope said.

Chanecka said PAG wanted to ensure people using Google’s map had the most up-to-date information.

“We feel like we might as well get the most accurate information out that we can,” Chanecka said.