A Carless culture’s a series of posts that examines how we can make de-car-ing a sexy and viable travel solution for Angelenos.
Too much bike info collection gave me writers block, overwhelmed by all the good stuff. Thus — I’m starting small.
This post’s about how to bike somewhere new without putting in tons of time researching a bike route. Apps to try:
Bike Metro. Enter your start and end points, specify the difficulty level you’re able to handle, and this app’ll spit out the route for you!
I checked out what Bike Metro’s recommendations would be for getting to Green Drinks — and I got not only a route, but also the number of calories I’d burn (281), my environmental impact (a car would create 6.183 lbs of C02 driving this route!) and my cash costs (save $6.92 by biking instead of driving!).
Bikely. This site’s a social bookmarking map thingie. Basically, it lets you share your fave bike routes with other bikers trying to get to the same spots. One I’m gonna try in reverse — a route from downtown to Santa Monica. (via Lifehacker)
Bycycle. Live in Portland, Milwaukee, or Pittsburgh? This app helps you plan your trips. As I don’t live in these places, I can’t really comment on its utility, but would love to hear from any of you who can. (via WorldChanging)
Know of other apps? Lemme know :)
Update, 8/18/06: Those in the San Francisco Bay area — Check out Bay Area Bicycle Maps (Thanks Kristen!)
Those in Vancouver and suburbs (Lower Mainland): Check out the maps of bike routes at Translink, as well as some in-depth maps from the city of Vancouver that may be helpful for bikers. (Thanks parge!)
Update, 9/1/06: Here’s part 2, about bike lanes –
SF Bay Area resource:
http://bikemapper.mtc.ca.gov/BikeMapper/
I’ve used 511.org for mapping out many public transportation routes and have always been pleased. I played around with the bikemapper and I’m pretty stoked…I think I’ll be using this now too. Good idea!
Comment by Kristen Atkinson — August 16, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
I haven’t found any app for Vancouver, BC cyclers to plan trips per se, but you can get detailed maps of all of the designated bike routes throughout the Lower Mainland (Vancouver and its suburbs) from the translink site:
http://www.translink.bc.ca/Maps/cycling_map_guide.asp
Translink is the company that works in cooperation with all of the municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District to improve transportation. They’re the ones who are not only in charge of the highways and bridges, but also in charge of mass transit, HOV lanes and bike routes.
Also, the city of Vancouver has a map application that, aside from being able to view in-depth detail about city streets and properties, you can superimpose different layers that cyclers can benefit from. I like to use the bike routes layer along with the elevation layer, to see if the route I have chosen has any suicidal hills on it. There are quite a few other map layers that are enlightening in their own right.
http://vancouver.ca/vanmap/
If the map doesn’t appear, you need to install the viewer. It’s well worth it though.
Comment by parge — August 17, 2006 @ 7:37 am
Thanks gals! I’ll add the links as an update to the original post :)
parge — I’ve been following your blog for a while now, cuz it combines 2 of my passions — atheism and environmentalism! :) Keep it up –
Comment by Siel — August 18, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
Seil,
Thanks for the vote of approval! I’ve been coming here a while too. I realize that if I’m to be as prolific as you are, I should be as active (as in activism) as you are. You’ve inspired me. I hope we can both continue to entertain, inform, and expand the network of green, rational people. You keep it up too! :)
Comment by parge — August 21, 2006 @ 7:59 am