Time to Think about Updating the Bike Map Again

Cherriots Transportation Options group and the MPO are talking about updating the Salem-area bike map. It seems to be on about a five year cycle, having been updated in 2012, 2017, and now discussion for 2022 or perhaps 2023.

Same area from 2012 map

Clip of central area from 2017 map

The map really hasn't changed very much. The stronger green line weight in the 2012 map makes those routes stand out better, but the density of marks on the map, even while employing a yellow-orange-red caution gradient, suggests Salem is better for biking than it really is. 

And this is the central matter. The reason the bike map is dissatisfying and not as useful as it could be is largely because the underlying network is still not very good. We have all these streets designated "low traffic," but none of them are fully upgraded to bike boulevards with diverters, robust traffic calming interventions, and any sense that non-auto travel is a priority on them. Because we haven't really committed to any scheme of bike boulevards, the green "low-traffic" streets vary widely in quality and comfort. Our old-school bike lane network on busy streets remains forbidding and uncomfortable for most people.

A person who has been around here for a while can use their local knowledge to make informed choices, but for an absolute newbie, the map may have less utility than we would like to think. We say Chemeketa is a low-traffic route downtown, and yet I often see people biking on the margin, even in the parking stalls, people salmoning, and people riding on the sidewalk. People are not yet comfortable on Chemeketa Street as a "low-traffic" choice.

Additionally, it has been clear for a while that the reification of "the bike community" as a monolith is wrong and, more than that, lately this simplification seems even harmful. Spandex-clad roadies have different needs and interests than families, than utility cyclists by choice, than utility cyclists by poverty and lack of choice, than urban hipsters, than kids biking to school, than women, than people of color. This map is not equally useful to all bike users and their different needs for safety, comfort, directness, and destinations.

Finally, this user map should better inform policy discussions. In the early draft of Chapter 5 on "gaps" for the 2023 Metropolitan Transportation Plan, the bike system gaps aren't necessarily well integrated with the levels of stress the user bike map indicates. They are using a technical definition of gap - but even just a "caution area" on the bike map might be tricky enough to constitute a functional gap for most people. A legacy bike lane on an arterial posted for 40mph might also be a serious gap. On a map that's a blue line that looks like a completed "bike facility," but it is not broadly useful and does not help us meet our bicycling mode share and climate goals.

"Gaps" from Chapt. 5 of early draft MTP

On the backside of the city map, there has been a regional map of rural roads and outer communities, as well as a short list of tips. That is useful for recreational riding, adventures, and travel to other cities and places nearby.

Backside of 2017 map on region and tips

On its bike map, the English versions of which are freshly updated this summer, Eugene offers a much larger number of marks and points of interest.

A lot more indicated on Eugene's map (new, 2022)

Corvallis uses topo shading to indicate hills, and a few more points of interest. The "covered bike parking" was especially interesting.

Legend on Corvallis map (2014)

Topography shading on the Corvallis map

Between of the different kinds of people who might like to bicycle and their different needs, as well as the need to balance density of useful information with map clutter and legibility, it is hard to say what information is key. All of these items have a legitimate claim to being on a map.

If funding were more generous, it would be nice to have two maps, one of the urban area, and oriented to utility cycling, with a backside devoted to tips and support information; and a second map of the region with rural routes and oriented more towards recreational road cycling.

One idea tentatively floated was tying in some urban edutainment/informational rides, maybe a little like the kind of rides featured often in Pedalpalooza, or the walks in the Wanderwalks series of maps. Here are some ideas that immediately came to mind.

• The Mill's map of Civil War and settlement-era buildings might provide an interesting history loop.
• WU prof David Craig has talked about a bike route of interesting trees in Salem, perhaps tied in with the Oak "cookie" dating project, and the exhibit at Bush Barn. (There will be a lecture on August 25th.)
  
• The poop circuit of sewer pump stations and the Willow Lake wastewater treatment plant might be a winner for kids.
• At some point the Oregon Black Pioneers will have a map of historical sites, and that might be very interesting.
  

Maybe you will think of others. I can think of several more very niche kinds of rides that might be interesting, but not ones of wider and more enduring interest. Urban loops with points of interest might be best as a distinct third map rather than part of only one map, a special "wanderbikes" map project, as it were.

If you have ideas, drop them in a comment. Much of the final design is a matter of trade-offs between information density, legibility, and total cost.