Highlighting whole street with some maps API

Question

Hello,

Is there any way to highlight/display on Google/Bing/(any other map provider) Maps whole street (from the beginning of the street to the end of)?

I know the existence of Polyline in Google Maps API, but it's just connecting two latitude points, and there is no way of making it automatic so I could display any street in some city.

Also I was thinking about Directions, but many street are 2 way, there is no guarante that you will mark whole street and it's just now user friendly. Example

Answer 1

You may want to check Mike Williams' article on how to snap points and polylines to streets with the Google Maps API:

• Snap points (and polylines) to street

Especially this example:

• Click on the map and a path will be drawn that follows the streets.

Answer 2

Take a look at OpenStreetMap. (Google and Bing won't let you access their underlying street data.)

You can show a map with OSM tiles, and use the API to query for the features you're interested in displaying on the map. OpenLayers is a javascript mapping library that could support this.

Here's a view of Chicago showing street vectors and other features overlaid on top of the map tiles:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=41.902104&lon=-87.626441&zoom=18&layers=B000FTTT