STATE OF THE ART: BIKE IT YOUR WAY
For years, cyclists have pushed Google Maps for a “Bike There” option that would show the best trails and biker-friendly roads to a given destination. But Google, stung by criticism of its unreliable walking directions, deferred.
Now a student-faculty team at the University of British Columbia has gone where mighty Google fears to tread. “People wanted it now,” says PhD candidate Meghan Winters, who has extensively studied cycling habits. “And for just Vancouver, we figured this was something that we could put together in about six months.”
Winters and UBC’s Cycling in Cities team launched their Cycling Route Planner in June 2008, Canada’s official Bike Month. It combines a Google Maps interface with everything from U.S. Geological Survey vegetation data to elevations provided by a company called DMTI Spatial to air pollution data recycled from another study. Users choose what’s important to them. Need to get across town in an hour but you hate hills, choke on exhaust, and insist on cheery, tree-lined streets? Whip out your trusty smartphone or laptop.
That is, if you’re in Vancouver. But Winters says other towns could easily adapt this tool. “Starting from scratch, it took us a little while longer, but we’d be happy to share the code with other cities.” The closest thing Seattle has is SDOT’s bicycling guide map, which displays bike lanes, popular routes, and topography but doesn’t approach the UBC planner’s interactivity and depth. The way the high-tech and cycling cultures intersect here, it seems only a matter of time.
Best Urban Bicycling Secret
Even some regular bicyclists don’t realize they can legally use Seattle’s sidewalks—usually the safest, sometimes the fastest, occasionally the only way to go. They just have to mind their speed and yield to pedestrians.
Best Accidental Bicycling Aid
Seattle has uncounted thousands of street-corner curb cuts and some 40,000 more on its to-do list. They’re installed to help the disabled and elderly get about. But they also enable bicycles to shift between the sidewalks and roadways, making them essential to safe, efficient two-wheeled travel.
Published: November 2009
One road-smart reader has already noted a glaring omission from our “smart biking” tips, especially from the gear list in Tip #2. It seemed so obvious we didn’t bother mentioning it. As Tom Vanderbilt notes in ‘Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do,’ it even makes actuarial sense to wear a helmet in a car (if you can stand the funny looks). But at least a motorists have airbag, seatbelt, and the car itself between their skulls and the pavement.
I love all the insider tips in this package, and thought the “Great Race” was especially enlightening. Being a bus commuter (and fair-weather bike commuter), I do have one pet peeve: If you go to a movie, coffeehouse, grocery store or concert, you would not even consider cutting in line in front of those patrons who were there first. So why is it that bus riders seem to think it’s perfectly fine to reach the bus stop right as the bus is pulling up and jump on right in front of those who have been waiting for 15 or 20 minutes? It’s too bad there’s not a “take a number” system that rewards those who have been waiting in the cold.
Mary makes a valid point. I’d like to ride the bus rather than use my car but I can’t stand the waiting, especially if it’s cold or raining. If I knew someone would wait for me with a cup of hot coco in the bus, perhaps the waiting wouldn’t be so bad.
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Lilia Gephardt | VPS hosting UK