DCBikemap.com

[chris_s]

FYI – My DC regional bike map now includes cycling directions.

Right now I don’t have much control over them, but I’m working on a new solution that will allow me to give you greater control over what kind of route you would like (confident vs concerned / hilly vs flat / etc). Stay tuned.

[DSalovesh]

Dunnon why these are popping out at me right now…

The National Mall Trails along the mall are crushed stone, not paved.

How about tracing in the Fort Circle Hiker / Biker trail (unpaved)?

[chris_s]

DCBikemap.com now displays nearby bike racks when you zoom in a sufficient distance. (Many thanks to rackspotter.com)

[chris_s]

Considering adding the ability to switch on additional amenities on the map. Anyone have thoughts on what would be most useful? fun?

Thoughts I’ve had include:
– public restrooms
– water fountains (especially ones designed for filling a water bottle)
– bike shops
– bike fix-it stations
– beer
– little free libraries

Would people be willing to help crowdsource the data?

[TTPaws]

@chris_s 138787 wrote:

Considering adding the ability to switch on additional amenities on the map. Anyone have thoughts on what would be most useful? fun?

Thoughts I’ve had include:
– public restrooms
– water fountains (especially ones designed for filling a water bottle)
– bike shops
– bike fix-it stations
– beer
– little free libraries

Would people be willing to help crowdsource the data?

– public restrooms!!!!!!!!!!

[Judd]

I will second restrooms. I’m also casting a vote for water fountains as I often have trouble finding one when I’m tooling around.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dasgeh]

Playgrounds!!!

[breakingaway89]

Clubs!!:p:p:p

[chris_s]

dcbikemap.com has been updated with the latest parking data from rackspotter

[chris_s]

At long last – new routing technology on dcbikemap.com!

Care about hills? Don’t care about hills? Care about bike infrastructure? Don’t care about bike infrastructure? Tell the site what YOU care about and it will attempt to route accordingly.

Don’t like the route it gives you? Drag the route around until it goes where YOU want it to go.

Feedback welcome.

[lordofthemark]

@chris_s 143535 wrote:

At long last – new routing technology on dcbikemap.com!

Care about hills? Don’t care about hills? Care about bike infrastructure? Don’t care about bike infrastructure? Tell the site what YOU care about and it will attempt to route accordingly.

Don’t like the route it gives you? Drag the route around until it goes where YOU want it to go.

Feedback welcome.

Hmm. I do not think of myself as quite a “hills – avoid at all costs” rider, but that is the setting I need to use to get it to pick my route Shirlington-Arlington Mill – Walter Reed – King route, instead of Shirlington-31st Street Ascent to get to Park Center. Is the 31st Street Ascent really seen as that wimpy a hill?

I suspect it is in part because in looking at hills it is using only topography, and not the interaction with infrastructure – I will take a steeper hill when there is seg infra, or when there is a an extra lane for traffic to pass – but I am least likely to take it when the only alternative is a single general travel lane (and the speed bumps add to my difficulties going uphill there) leaving motor vehicle traffic trailing behind me, or needing to pass in the opposite direction lane.

[huskerdont]

Seems to work a lot better in Chrome than it does in Firefox. In Firefox the directions disappear down the bottom right and you can only scroll through them a bit at a time. In Chrome it works very well, with all the directions easy to read in the upper right.

I note that while I don’t think of myself as taking major detours to get to infrastructure, I actually do. I apparently go out of my way a bit to get to the Custis rather than take Lee Highway. I am fine with this. The map also sends me there via the “cycleway” on George Mason, which I note is only a sharrow south of Lee Highway, whereas I’ll always go by the hospital on Edison, which is more direct and far lower in stress. Gives a distance of 9 miles and 52 minutes, whereas it’s 8.5 miles and 30 minutes in my world. Fun to compare.

Good job. Something I’ll use next time I need to get somewhere unfamiliar; it will be interesting to compare it to Google Maps’ cycling directions.

[mello yello]

I have designed my commute to utilize low-speed surface streets and specifically NOT the Mt Vernon Trail between 14th St Bridge and Roosevelt Island. This takes me down Ohio Dr and over the Memorial Bridge to the paved path around Arlington Cemetery. I cannot make the DC Bikemap follow that route, even thought the trail is clearly marked as a paved MUP.

Also, I’d be interested if there were a way to filter or color code streets with speed limits of 25, 35 or 35+

[GovernorSilver]

@chris_s 143535 wrote:

At long last – new routing technology on dcbikemap.com!

Care about hills? Don’t care about hills? Care about bike infrastructure? Don’t care about bike infrastructure? Tell the site what YOU care about and it will attempt to route accordingly.

Don’t like the route it gives you? Drag the route around until it goes where YOU want it to go.

Feedback welcome.

Nice, nice.

You might want to add the yellow line to the legend. Took me a while to figure out which line was the route that the app chose for me – it’s the yellow one! I’m guessing you’d want to label it “Top suggested route” or something as there’s already a line in the legend for suggested routes.

I guess “suggested routes” is actually “bike friendly roads”? Also it’s very similar in color to the “cycletracks” line.

Finally, “Capital City Brewing Co” cannot be found by the app’s search function. This is important for those who want to attend the 3rd Thursday happy hours. 😎

[chris_s]

Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

1) I’m looking into some of the routing issues. So far most of them I’ve been able to figure out – they’ve been related to how the bike paths & streets are connected together and tagged at Open Street Map.
2) I’m definitely going to take another look at the color code & the legend.
3) At this point it’s unlikely that the To and From boxes will be able to support business names, they require addresses. I am hoping to add the ability to right click somewhere on the map and say “route from here” or “route to here”.
4) I’m hoping to add the ability to overlay the Arlington Comfort Map as well as the Montgomery County Stress map over the bike map. I’ll look at adding the ability to overlay speed limits as well, though I suspect that will mostly expose the fact that OpenStreetMap’s speed limit data is sorely incomplete.
5) I can’t seem to duplicate huskerdont’s issues in Firefox. Can anyone else confirm?

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