Bikers rejoice, Google has just added intelligent biking directions for more than 12,000 U.S. bike trails as a new option inside Google Maps.

The company writes that the new biking features will “include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes.”

The new option now sits next to the current Google Maps standbys — car, public transit and walking — for online routing options, so users can select the new option from the dropdown menu to uncover a Google-recommended bike routes (likely sans big hills!).

You can also turn on a “Bicycling” layer via the “More” tab when zoomed into a particular city inGoogle Maps. The trails’ green hues should indicate terrain and road type. Dark green equates to bike-only, light green means there’s a bike lane, and dashed green means it’s a decent biking path but one without a bike lane.

Before you get too excited, we should note that as of right now biking is not an option in mobile apps, so make sure to plan ahead before you hit the pavement.

Route4Me is a free, online service that provides optimal routing for multi-destination trips.

With a nice web interface and a new iPhone app, Route4Me is a great way to create a route for trips that have more than one stop.

In the age of GPS and Google Maps, getting directions isn’t that difficult. How good or accurate those directions might be depends on the service and location, but finding creating a route map is a pretty simple process. Route4Me, however, lets you enter in multiple destinations, giving you the most efficient route so you can save time and energy by driving less.

The web interface is pretty basic — just enter in your starting address and your destinations and you’re off. Be aware, if your addresses aren’t specific enough, you might have to change them. The system isn’t as forgiving as some mapping tools.

We like that you can then download those routes into a file that will work with other navigation systems. This is nice for people with TomTom or other GPS systems.

The new Route4Me iPhone app, which is $1.99, is designed to make turn-by-turn directions to multiple destinations really simple. The app has a solid interface, but be aware: If you just want to go one place, the app won’t create a route for you unless you enter it twice.

A nice feature of the iPhone app is that it can use your Address Book for location information. This is handy if you are visiting friends and don’t want to have to manually type in each address.

The Internet has made mapping and route planning easier on all of us and Route4Me is another tool that can help users save time and gas.