Okay so with no show stoppers appearing, I've dropped Greater Northshore BIke Map 1.2 - Late May 2024, which shows bike infrastructure and adds preferred non-infrastructure routes between the Seattle and the new Eastside 2 Line Bike Connector maps.
It covers Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, Woodinville, Juanita, parts of north Redmond that the 2 Line leaves out, and a decent chunk of unincorporated NE King County.
Next up will be a revision of the MEGAMAP, a map that pastes together the Greater Northshore map and the two others into one big poster-sized beast.
After the MEGAMAP update, there probably really will be a big break, since infrastructure additions don't show up overnight. But I'm always looking for new data, so please give it to me if you have some!
This version adds heatmap-sourced non-bike-infrastructure routes that people use anyway as a new class, in Seattle-style green. Think of them as demand paths.
I think they're worth adding because they tell people: yes, people use these fragments of infrastructure; this is how they connect together. This is where people actually go.
Also more dirt trails, a little more road-level infrastructure - minor stuff - and an improved legend.
The attached is at reduced resolution because that's what Mastodon does. But it's okay.
one note on the map that I did think about: the lowest-grade red and green lines are distinguishable in black and white. the red lines use dashes, the green are dots with narrower spacing between.
the legend in this version didn’t make that super clear but I’ve revised the source to fix that.
Also I did some test prints over the weekend, and the green lines print fine. Even at lowered resolution (to fit on 11x17" paper for example) they're distinct from red dash sharerow markers.
Okay! New map! The attachment is the first representation of dataset 1.1, using a lot of dotted green lines (as per the Seattle map legend) to show non-bike-signed routes commonly used by people biking.
(It's not full resolution because Mastodon shrinks it.)
It also includes a couple of actual bike-supporting routes I missed in dataset 1.0, and a lot more dirt/loose gravel trails, particularly in unincorporated King County and on the northern Eastside. But there's bits of adds everywhere.
The dotted green is experimental. Feedback is definitely requested.
Full resolution is at Github, select the map labelled "EXPERIMENTAL":
One thing working with the version 1.1 dataset is telling me is that if there are some pretty obvious-seeming ways that an un-notated map would tell you to go... but the heat data says nobody does that.
And that's the value of including these green dashed lines, because ... that lack of heat data says there's a reason not go do there.
Has anyone here used the Avondale Road barely-marked "bike lanes" from around the Power Line Trail up to NE 132nd? Because on Google Maps they lack things like "this is a bike lane" markers except at the very, very end. Right now I've marked them as dual sharerows because of how bad they look to me. But are they secretly okay in person?
Thinking of adapting Seattle map's "faint green dashes" for "unmarked but regularly used by bicycle riders." It'll mostly be useful in unincorporated King County areas of the map.
I've used it here on Bear Creek, NE 132nd, NE 133rd, as a test.
Basically I want them to be much less visible, but still findable, much like the Seattle map does. And continuing their legend on this strikes me as better than making up something else completely different.
anyway the big reason i went to woodinville today was to take the northshore map to woodinville bike
and they were the first people to have more data for me, though they mostly told me how to find it rather than giving it to me. it's all up in Hollywood Hills and a lot of it is off-road, so not really destination focused. But some of it, apparently, is paved and connected to other stuff, so of some interest.
I got a question asking "why are the Seattle lines green" and the answer is "because that's the colour set they use on their map" but the real answer is "I need to include enough of their legend for it to make sense."
So now I have.
If you downloaded it before around 8:40pm Saturday May 11, you might grab the new copy if you want the Seattle legend included too.
Well I didn't get any corrections (but found a small one of my own) so the re-implementation of the Greater Northshore Connector Bike Map - now with slightly more map height, contrast, and more easily seen lines - has dropped. Enjoy!
Or if you don't mind .jpg and a little chopped off the bottom I guess you could just grab the preview here, it's at full resolution, just compressed a little and some of the bottom removed to fit.