Google Maps Pedometer
Here’s a neat Google Maps hack that lets you figure out the length of route, given a set of waypoints.
Finally, I know (about a year after when it may have mattered) that the route we always took walking back from Fairway along Broadway to turn at W. 77th Street is the optimal route, beating the “turn at W. 74th to Riverside Drive” by half a block. Similarly, the optimal way to get from the Wall Street 7th Avenue IRT station to my old office is around 160 feet shorter by going down Warren Street and across on Beaver, compared walking along Wall Street before going down on Broadway.
For Cleveland, my walking route to the gym in Cleveland is about 0.7 miles, and that we walked about 2.5 miles to and back from Jacobs Field for last night’s baseball game, not counting whatever distance is involved with getting around the stadium’s interior.
Update: There’s also a Google Maps hack that measures area. Here’s a blog devoted to Google Maps hacks.