- A guide to DIY bike route maps: Introduction
- Form a Bikes-as-Transportation Organization
- Draft the initial bike route network
- Present the Bike Routes Concept to the City
- Research Great Bike Maps
- Refine the Bike Routes
- Present the Final Bike Route Network to the City
- Design the Bike Route Map
- Produce the Bike Route Map (with 100% free software)
- Present the Bike Map Design to the City
- Getting Quotes for Printing the Map
- Fundraising for a bike map
- Financial Logistics of being a Lightweight Bike Organization
- Thank Yous
- Distribution and Beyond
For the front side of the map– the side that actually has the large map on it, our local City/County GIS department produced the map image and legend for the project at no charge. They were essentially tracing the map we created and it sounded like it wasn’t very hard for them. It helped that our contact there walked to work regularly and believed in the project.
If the city had not cooperated in this way, I would hope that we could get a basic map of the city of through an “open records request”, and then overlay the routes ourselves, if necessary.
Some more details I included on the map:
- A photo and description of getting the bikes on and off the buses which had just gotten racks. I had this part approved
by the local bus organization. They were excited about the project because they considered both bikes and buses to be alternative transportation, which could strengthen each other.
- A disclaimer of the City’s liability for the use of the map. I’m sure how much it’s worth legally, but it didn’t take up much space and I thought might improve the chance of approval. You can see an example disclaimer I found.
- A non-official city logo. If the city would pay for the maps, I would swap in their official logo, but that didn’t happen. Jim Hair let me use the great Richmond logo that he uses for his own promotion of Richmond.
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