For the first time ever the City of Portland’s official bike map is available in an interactive online version.
This is great news for anyone who wants to learn more about how to get around town on a bike using the safest, most efficient routes.
The map is very detailed and allows you to zoom in for fine-grain analysis and inspection. Layers can be turned off and on and include helpful symbols that tell you the the location of: bike shops, one-way streets, climbs, caution areas, and more. Click on a bike shop symbol (blue wrench) and a window pops up allowing you to go directly to the shop’s website. Both satellite and basic map view are available. The mobile version works very well so I recommend adding a button to map on your home screen.
This latest GIS-powered version sure has come a long way since PBOT’s 1975 “From here to there by bicycle” map.
This is a very useful tool for journalists and advocates who need to understand where problems and opportunities lie. I like to zoom into different quadrants and neighborhoods to see how dense the bike infrastructure network is — or how much it’s lacking.
Take a look at downtown (they still have some bugs to work out as it appears the street names are a bit off):
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Then just across the river in the Central Eastside, notice the huge gaps and lack of north-south routes (and lack of bikeways in general!):
And here’s what our bikeway network looks like east of 82nd between Halsey and Division:
Southwest Portland sure has a lot of caution areas:
Having this map online also means we don’t have to wait for reprints to see the latest updates to the network. Hopefully PBOT maintains this so it shows the most recent additions and changes to our streets.
Bookmark the map page for quick reference, and add the online version of Metro’s Bike There Map too while you’re at it.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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