"http://nycbikemaps.com is a new google maps mashup of all of New York City's bike lanes, bike paths, & greenways. It is presently a work in progress, but already has almost every bike lane, bike path, & greenway plotted.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions on ways to improve it. thanks
www.nycbikemaps.com"
NYC Bike Maps
Mon, 05/01/2006 - 5:22pm
Mon, 05/01/2006 - 6:57pm
#1
Nice job!
This is really helpful, thanks for putting it together.
Do you have any interest in adding content for LI, NJ, CT and upstate NY? If yes, I can assist; drop me a note.
Mon, 05/01/2006 - 9:49pm
#2
Great - nice detail. A fine tool.
It loads slowly though and zooming and panning is slow.
And the the bike routes are off-base when I use Explorer. For example, the Central Park loop looks like it runs up Central Park West and then Park Drive West. On AOL, it's fine.
But still, a wonderful map!!
Thanks!
Tue, 05/02/2006 - 4:05am
#3
Yes, it is a bit slow right now, but it is fantastic! Thanks for putting this together!
Tue, 05/02/2006 - 5:11am
#4
thanks for the comments & feedback
thanks for the comments & feedback--
Paul-- There are definite plans for adding additional content for routes outside of the city, as well as train stations. Presently the River Road & parts of the South County Trailway are the only routes outside of the city that have been added, but more will be added & if you have any gps data that could assist it would be greatly appreciated
JP—Internet Explorer has been giving me some trouble in how it renders the map. I hope to find a way to clean up the code to make it load faster in the future. As for the plotting on Central Park, that will need to redone, as it was plotted using gps readings which are not quite as accurate as if I trace the route on satellite imagery.
Jessica—It is unfortunately rather slow when dragging & zooming on the map. I am working on cleaning up the code to improve the response times, but have found that what makes it faster on firefox, breaks it for internet explorer, so speed is being sacrificed for compatibility.
Thanks again for all the comments & please check back after this weekend’s 5 Boro Bike Tour for some new content.
Tue, 05/02/2006 - 10:38am
#5
Check out www.njbikemaps.com (nm)
Tue, 05/02/2006 - 6:12pm
#6
Seth, no GPS data, just a stack of bike maps and Topo. I could work out the coorinates by hand, but you'd have to give me some direction on how to best document that for you
Wed, 05/03/2006 - 9:48am
#7
to do list for nycbiekmaps.com
thanks for all the suggestions.
here the my to do list for NYCBikeMaps.com:
* directional indication for one-way bike lanes
* add locations of greenway access points
* add search function to recenter the map user supplied address
* separate map of geotagged images of bike lanes & bike paths. working on it: http://www.nycbikemaps.com/pictures_nycbikemaps/map.htm
* add notes for special circumstances (stairs, detours, & construction)
* location of bike shops
* public restrooms near bike routes
* subway & train stations near bike routes (this could be difficult)
* adding elevation data
* Printer friendly version ( routes do not print presently & I don't know why not)
Paul- Are you familiar with google earth? That is how many of the routes were plotted. I am working on documenting how to plot routes in google earth & will be sure to let you know once it has been completed.
thanks again to all for the comments & suggestions.
Wed, 05/03/2006 - 10:38am
#8
on the surface it's good, but...
...it is quite slow as others have mentioned. A quick look behind the door (view source) and I see why. Oodles and oodles of global variables are created using client side javascript.
Not only does this blow out the computer in terms of memory, but it will slow down the script's execution exponentially.
For instance, each time I click the browser refresh button, an additional 15-20 megabtes of physical memory is allocated. I do not see any cleanup work in your code's onunload event. I have not spent much time navigating about, but this large memory allocation and leak issue will quickly make it unresponsive, eventually cripple the browser and frustrate the user.
Mon, 05/08/2006 - 7:32pm
#9
it's slow & needs work
"thanks for the great comments, Peter. An ""onunload"" event has been added per your suggestion & google's documentation. The site still takes a while to load, but hopefully this help. I am learning the javascript as I go & still need a better understanding of it to really clean up the code.
"
Tue, 05/09/2006 - 6:43am
#10
showstoppers and way points
"In my humble opinion, I'd get the performance issue taken care of first, before anything else as it's a ""showstopper"".
If you need some help, please feel free to ask me offline. I'd be happy to help. I'm intimately familiar with JavaScript and have very basic knowledge of Google mapping.
I notice that you have a large set of way points in your code. Is this a bit of a kludge?
The reason I ask is last winter I had the idea of creating an online route construction - cue sheet application. I thought it would compliment the NYCC's ride library quite well. Actually, I would integrate the two to some degree, i.e create, print and upload the ride library.
At the time I looked at Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s' respective mapping software API. While allot of their services are free the one feature I needed most, way points, was not. A subscription to such services was cost prohibitive. Due to that showstopper, I nixed that idea.
In short, Google/Yahoo/Microsoft allows you to plot points A to B for free. For instance, this is fine for driving directions where one does not care if the route is a highway or not. For a bike cue sheet construction, I had hoped to be able to plot certain way points to avoid busy roads.
That is possible only using the subscription service, I believe. I did not give it much though if there is a more creative hack that can be applied using the free API.
Long story short that is the reason I ask - purely out of curiosity.
"
Thu, 05/25/2006 - 6:06pm
#11
"Hi Peter--
Fixing the performance issue is definitely top priority for nycbikemaps.com. Thank you for the offer of assistance.
It is bit of a kludge that worked in getting the paths to appear, but has obvious performance issues. There are more than five thousand way points used to plot the routes onto the map & serving them seems to be the biggest issue. I am exploring new ways to serve them, but would gladly take any suggestions.
There have been a number of people who have pointed out that the website is a bit of a memory hog. Google maps had a rather substaintial memory leak issue with IE & to a lesser extent firefox, which they recently released documentation on how to fix. I have taken there suggestions, but still find that it can hog computer resources.
nycbikemaps.com still needs a lot of work & unfortunately my day job is hogging most of my time, not to mention trying to get out & ride whenever possible, but I appreciate all the comments & suggestions. Hopefully, the performance issue has been improved somewhat, but obviously there is still a long way to go.
As for using google maps for the NYCC ride library, it is completely feasible, but you would have to geocode every intersection & would require alot of tinkering to make it useful. Google Earth maybe a better option, but it is a separate software program, which would make it accessing it more difficult.
thanks again & happy riding!"
Mon, 05/08/2006 - 7:33pm
#12
Five Boro Bike Tour Map
Five Boro Bike Tour Map:
http://www.nycbikemaps.com/5_Boro_Bike_Tour_2006.html
