Google Maps recently launched a new feature of its mapping program - direction for people who are walking, rather than driving. Get more details here.

This may not seem like a big deal, and probably won’t be in many situations. I mean, if you are traveling from Downtown St. Louis to Fenton, you probably don’t really care to have a walking route mapped out.

However, the feature will be a big plus when navigating areas with a lot of one-way streets. Walking directions will often be much more direct than driving directions in those situations. After all, when you are on foot, one-way streets mean very little.

If you do plan to use this new feature, be aware that it’s still in beta mode, meaning it’s far from perfect, as explained in the Google blog:

Walking directions are a new feature for Google, and while I’m pretty excited about it, there are some rough edges that compel us to release it in “beta.” Walking directions work well for short trips in urban areas, but we don’t always know if a street has a sidewalk, or if there’s actually a special pedestrian bridge for crossing a busy street. There are still a lot of pedestrian pathways we don’t know about, and they might save you some time if you find them. We’re working on collecting new data on pedestrian pathways and on more effective ways to solicit your feedback, so that we can steadily improve this feature and get you where you need to be as efficiently as possible.

The company also is working on a feature that maps out public transit routes. St. Louis, however, is not yet included in the system.