The campus’s new online map just keeps getting better.

The Google-based map went live in September, and since then the UC Davis map team has added several new layers, highlighting, for example, “gardens and outdoor spaces” and “buildings with wireless access.”

Meanwhile, Google is working on its own addition: Street View images along streets and paths in the central campus. The 360-degree panoramas, taken by nine directional cameras mounted on an adult-sized tricycle, are due to go online within a few months.

Street View already takes in the roads around the central campus, right up to the gates. On Nov. 5, with the university’s permission, a Google trike crew came inside to cover much of the rest of the campus — all around the Quad, for example, plus bike and pedestrian paths, the arboretum and Aggie Stadium (around the concourse and up and down the field).

“I’m glad I was able to help Google put UC Davis on the map,” said Doane Nguyen, who works on the Street View special collections team.

“It’s a great way for future students to see the campus, if they can’t visit before applying.”

Our connection at Google

Nguyen knows very well what the campus looks like, and he certainly knows his way around, even without Google directions — he attended UC Davis, walking and bicycling his way around campus en route to a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 2008, and he worked as a Unitrans driver and route supervisor.

His experience with Unitrans helped put UC Davis on Google’s Street View “to-do” list.

Chris DiDio, geographical information system specialist with the Administrative and Resource Management, got the ball rolling after learning that Google had solicited the public’s help in deciding where to gather images by Street View tricycle.

“I thought this would be a good way to show people that UC Davis has a lot to offer,” DiDio said, particularly for prospective students in Southern California who might not know much about the Davis campus.

So, as project leader for the online campus map, DiDio touched base with Unitrans, which already had a presence on Google Maps (when you search for directions in Davis, you can click the “public transit” icon, and Google will show the Unitrans route that will get you to where you want to go).

“Chris asked me if we had any contacts at Google that might help in bringing the Google trike to the core campus,” recalled Anthony Palmere, Unitrans assistant general manager.

“I remembered that Doane works at Google,” Palmere said. “We did not know he was actually involved with the trike itself, but we contacted him, and he made it happen.”

As an operations lead for Google, Nguyen handled all of the logistics for the Street View crew’s visit to UC Davis. The three-person team used its tricycle inside the gates and a car for new Street View images outside the gates.

Google launched Street View in 2007, collecting all of the images by car. Subsequently, Google decided to take some detours, acknowledging on the company’s official blog that “some of the country’s most interesting and fun places aren’t accessible with our Street View car.”

“What if you want to tour the campuses of prospective universities, scout a new running trial, or plan the most efficient route to your favorite roller coasters in a theme park?”

The Street View trike is born

And, to get those images, Google needed a smaller, more nimble vehicle. Thus was born the Street View trike.

Google trike crews have visited only a few college campuses so far; Davis is the first UC campus to welcome the trike. But don’t look for the images right away.

The Google Maps Street View Partner Program website advises: “Due to the large volume of collections, we cannot guarantee a time to launch your location in Street View. However, it is ordinarily launched approximately three to six months after the date of collection.”

When Google posts the images, they will be automatically visible on the campus map and on all Google Maps. You can access Street View images by using the Pegman icon atop the magnification scale; drag Pegman to any location that is highlighted in blue — and, then, you’ll have the same view as if you were standing in the same place as Pegman.