Stylized maps of bike routes, similar to the example set my London transit maps. This is the best kind of mashup.
Anyone who has ever tried to find a safe route across town on a bicycle knows how hard to can be to decode the disconnected network of bike lanes, bike corridors, and others forms of lukewarm bike infrastructure—not to mention how well they interact with the terrain and the cars on the road.
Andrew Small writes for CityLab about an intrepid bike and map aficionado who has addressed the limitations of bike maps by creating his own. Michael Graham is behind the Spider Maps website, where the maps model bike routes on inspiration from the "spider maps" of bus routes in London.
In addition to sprinkling in examples of historic spider maps, Small explains the process that enable Graham to develop the Spider Maps:
Graham attended a Transit Tech workshop in Arlington, Virginia, hosted by Mobility Lab, taught himself to use Adobe Illustrator, and tasked himself with applying these concepts to bike maps for four cities: London, San Francisco, his hometown of Denver, and Washington, D.C.
Check out the results of all four maps through the link below.
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research