With Google Maps, you can find:
- Traffic for your commute
- Transit lines in a new city
- Bicycle-friendly routes
- Satellite imagery
- Information about the landscape
- Places nearby
Choose your map & your info
- On your computer, open Google Maps.
- To change the Map type, at the bottom left, click Layers .
- Map: Roads, places, and major landmarks
- Satellite: Aerial pictures
- Point to Layers and click More to find info about:
- Terrain: Local terrain
- Traffic: Local traffic conditions
- Transit: Bus, subway, and rail routes
- Biking: Bike paths
- Street View: Street View of the area
- Globe view: Zoom out and view the world in 3D
- Air quality: Air quality information
- Travel Time: Distance that can be traveled from a point in a specific amount of time
- Wildfires: Wildfire information
Tip: For some layers, when there isn’t enough info, it’s listed as unavailable and you can’t select it.
Learn the meanings of colors & symbols on the legend
Nearby places of interestTo learn more about the mini-pins and what they represent, consult the full legend.
Traffic colors
The color code shows you the speed of traffic on the road.
- Green: No traffic delays.
- Orange: Medium amount of traffic.
- Red: Traffic delays. The darker the red, the slower the speed of traffic on the road.
Tip: Gray or blue lines on the map show your routes.
Traffic incident symbols
Traffic incidents include these types of delays:
- Crashes
- Construction
- Road closures
- Other incidents
To find details about what happened, click or tap the icon.
Tip: You can find road closures marked with a dotted red line where the road is closed.
The lines on the map show bus, subway, and rail routes. To find more information and upcoming trains or buses, choose a station stop icon .
To find station stops, look for transit icons like , , or .
Tip: When possible, the colored lines on the map match the transportation agency's color system. For example, the “A” line in New York City is colored blue by the Metro Transit Authority (MTA), so it's blue on the map.
The colors show you the type of bicycling paths.
- Dark green: Trails that don't have auto traffic.
- Green: Dedicated lanes are roads that are shared with cars and have a separate bike lane.
- Dotted green line: Bicycle-friendly roads are roads that don't have a bike lane but are recommended for cyclists.
- Brown: Unpaved trails are off-road dirt paths.