I know I’m all maps all the time lately

[solarbird]

I know, I know, ANOTHER MAP POST but this is a release candidate! It’s RC1 (and probably only) for Version 1.1, Dataset 1.1 rev 4 of the Greater Northshore Bike Connector Map:

Release Candidate 1!

This is actually a significant revision, because it adds an entirely new data type: demand paths, in the form of roads which completely lack bike infrastructure and yet are still used regularly by people on bikes.

I think this is worth doing for a few reasons. First, it shows you where drivers are used to seeing bikes around. That’s helpful, because if you’re trying to get somewhere without support, it shows you how other people do it, and what’s probably the least bad idea.

Secondly, it connects a lot of apparently-island-like infrastructure together. It shows you that sometimes where infrastructure stops, bikes don’t, and how to get across those gaps if you have to.

How much heatmap intensity it takes to get onto this new layer is highly dependant upon context. In unincorporated King County, for example, it’s all really obvious. Lake Forest Park, by contrast, is an absolute nightmare – all the roads are kinda the same, because all of the options are kind of equally bad. But I did my best to tell them apart – in part by figuring out whether they went anywhere in particular – and from that make intelligent choices about what to show and not show.

As always, feedback is requested. I’ll be dropping the final before the end of the week, and then after that, I’ll get on making an updated MEGAMAP. It doesn’t seem like making a new megamap would be work? But… kinda actually is!

Oh yeah, one final amusing-to-me note: there’s a section of bike lane infrastructure that Kenmore says is there, but Google says absolutely isn’t. So I biked all the way up there – to SnoHOmish County – and SUCK IT, GOOGLE, MY MAP IS RIGHT AND YOURS IS LIES. It’s absolutely there.

Pretty good quality, too. I mean, for paint. Mostly buffered, always nice and wide. Not too bad, particularly given the low traffic road.

For paint, anyway.

Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.

Comments

[rialian]

===Hey, we cannot be all the collapse, all the time...and cartography is a rather important skill to have. (I found it an interesting aspect of permaculture study, and understanding the where of the area you reside in.)

[ckd]

Can you give me a Google Maps link showing the area with the missing bike lane?

[solarbird]

...holy shit it updated.

Seriously. Two weeks ago it was showing none of the infrastructure in the satellite view, but now it's there. It's still not in streetview, of course, but that doesn't pretend it's 2024 data. It's labelled 2018.

I have been bitching about this on Mastodon - satellite view saying "image data 2024" and yet being at least a year out of date a few places - so maybe someone there noticed.

[solarbird]

Yeah, all that - but also, I mean, I just like maps.

And doubly: this is less about "here use this for wayfinding" and more about "here, this is a poster you can use to promote and/or reduce entry to biking by showing how you can in fact get there from here." It's a way of showing all the places you can go.

That's one of the reasons for the megamap. As two bike shop owners have now told me, if I were selling these things, they'd buy them.

(I can't, at least, not without clearing up a lot of rights issues first. Which is too bad, we could really, really use the money right now.)

But! Doing this has taught me a few things, so that's been nice.

[rialian]

===It is excellent to do things one likes, have it be useful...and make the world a slight bit better. (chuckles)

[kathmandu]

It does sound like your map is a neat resource.