Use layers to find places, traffic, terrain, biking & transit

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

Mini-pins on the maps show nearby places of interest you may enjoy. The pins are listed in different categories, including:

Food and drink:

Retail:

Outdoor attractions:

Emergency services:

City services:

To learn more about the mini-pins and what they represent, consult the full legend.

Traffic

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.

Public transit

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.

Biking trails

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.
Dashed dark-green lines: Unpaved trails are off-road dirt paths.

Terrain

Find the elevation of the landscape, like mountains and canyons. Contour lines overlaid on the map show elevation and gray numbers show altitude.

Street View

Blue lines overlaid on the map show where Street View is available.

Understand country borders & names

When you explore the world on Google Maps, you can find different styles, borders, and labels.

Identify international country borders

Based on the political status of the border, international country borders are displayed in different styles.

Identify international boundaries

Undisputed international boundaries are displayed as solid gray lines. For example, the line between the United States and Canada.

Identify treaty & de facto boundaries

Temporary treaty and provisional boundaries are displayed as dashed gray lines.

Treaty boundary: A boundary set in a treaty or similar agreement but not finalized by law.
De facto boundary: A boundary not set by a treaty or similar agreement but used by all states involved.

Identify disputed boundaries

Disputed boundaries are displayed as dashed gray lines. The places involved don't agree on a boundary.

Identify country or region names

On Google Maps, country names, like Germany or Japan, are displayed in the language set in your browser's settings. Learn how to change Google Maps languages and domains.

Identify state or province borders

State and province borders are displayed as thin, light-gray dotted lines inside a country. For example, the boundaries of New Jersey or Alberta.

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