Boulder Colorado has just made a serious move in the race to be the first Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly City. According to their local newspaper,they have ponied up $140,000 to have MapQuest build them an interactive bike route map.
Boulder is one of only four other Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Cities as designated by the League of American Bicyclists. Portland is also a “Gold Level” city along with Palo Alto, California and Corvallis Oregon. However, our great city still has yet to announce anything publicly about a major interactive bike route mapping effort.
The only one I’ve found locally is done by ByCycle.org and it isn’t quite ready for prime time. Marin County, in California has the “BikeMapper.” And even Los Angeles (car capital of the world!) has one.
Come one, Portland! We’re not going to let those other cities outdo us are we?
[via Cyclelicious]
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$140K for Mapquest technology? I bet this guy (http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/) or any of many similar Google Maps hackers could do better for less! Even if the API isn’t mature enough right now to support this application, it seems to me that the dragging/zooming/satellite view features of Gmaps would make it worth waiting for vs. crustier older mapping services.
Todd:
Great point. I couldn’t agree with you more. Perhaps MapQuest is thinking of “borrowing” some of the cool Google features. But you’re right, $140K seems like waaay too much to spend given what’s free already on the web.
A cyclist friend who works at MapQuest in Denver forwarded that news to me. When I asked her about the $140,000 she was coy. I’m betting that somebody local in Boulder will come up with something based on GMaps over the next six months.
Metro is already working on an interactive biking map. They tried to get funding through the last MTIP process at Metro (more info here: http://www.metro-region.org/article.cfm?articleID=3940&do=details&pid=1796), but they weren’t included in the final list. They plan to code each decision point according to bike-friendliness and then come up with route choice algorithms based on that. I could put you in touch with Jack Newlevant, who volunteers for Metro on this project, for more info.
Sweet. I’m moving to Boulder in 4 months. This rocks.
We created a hard-copy bicycle/pedestrian map in 2007. Soon after, we migrated that map to separate interactive, public participation maps that are available online.
If you already have a hard-copy map, it\’s easy to make it available online using this tool. From our web site (www.princetononline.org/wwbpa), click on \’Maps\’ and visit our online maps:
– Bicycle Roadways
– Pedestrian Sidewalks and Trails
– Bikeability
– Walkability
We\’re in the process of developing the Bikeability and Walkability maps, but they will ultimately identify gaps in our bike/ped infrastructure. We will use this information to evaluate and propose engineering solutions.
Please feel free to contact me for more info.
Chris Scherer
Vice President
West Windsor Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance
[…] I also went to a workshop about online route mapping, which is a topic I’ve covered several times in the past few months. Online bike trip planning is the next big thing. There are tons of cool features you can build into it and I think it will bring many new people into cycling. I’ve got to find out the latest on what’s happening here in Portland…it’s been a while since I checked in with Wyatt’s Trip Planner at ByCycle.org and with the GIS guys at the City of Portland. I’ll try and find out the latest and report back what I hear. Tomorrow is the big Alice Awards party at the Oregon Convention Center. The Alice Awards are a BTA fundraiser to recognize Oregon’s “bike heros,” folks that are doing great things for bikes. The BTA tells me they’ve sold completely out of tickets and that at least 600 people will show up to toast the 40 nominees from across the state. In addition to raising money, the night is really a big excuse to party and revel in our bikey-ness. I’m really looking forward to it. If you can’t make it down, I plan on posting some words and photos from the event. […]
[…] I also went to a workshop about online route mapping, which is a topic I’ve covered several times in the past few months. Online bike trip planning is the next big thing. There are tons of cool features you can build into it and I think it will bring many new people into cycling. I’ve got to find out the latest on what’s happening here in Portland…it’s been a while since I checked in with Wyatt’s Trip Planner at ByCycle.org and with the GIS guys at the City of Portland. I’ll try and find out the latest and report back what I hear. Tomorrow is the big Alice Awards party at the Oregon Convention Center. The Alice Awards are a BTA fundraiser to recognize Oregon’s “bike heros,” folks that are doing great things for bikes. The BTA tells me they’ve sold completely out of tickets and that at least 600 people will show up to toast the 40 nominees from across the state. In addition to raising money, the night is really a big excuse to party and revel in our bikey-ness. I’m really looking forward to it. If you can’t make it down, I plan on posting some words and photos from the event. […]
[…] I also went to a workshop about online route mapping, which is a topic I’ve covered several times in the past few months. Online bike trip planning is the next big thing. There are tons of cool features you can build into it and I think it will bring many new people into cycling. I’ve got to find out the latest on what’s happening here in Portland…it’s been a while since I checked in with Wyatt’s Trip Planner at ByCycle.org and with the GIS guys at the City of Portland. I’ll try and find out the latest and report back what I hear. Tomorrow is the big Alice Awards party at the Oregon Convention Center. The Alice Awards are a BTA fundraiser to recognize Oregon’s “bike heros,” folks that are doing great things for bikes. The BTA tells me they’ve sold completely out of tickets and that at least 600 people will show up to toast the 40 nominees from across the state. In addition to raising money, the night is really a big excuse to party and revel in our bikey-ness. I’m really looking forward to it. If you can’t make it down, I plan on posting some words and photos from the event. […]