Wouldn't be too hard to map this to real estate values.

by oboe on May 14, 2012 12:54 pm • link • report

Fascinating map, although there at least a couple of methodological flaws. The "hills" map doesn't take into account the high-level bridges that cross Rock Creek Park - there is a hellacious valley between Adams Morgan and Woodley Park, but riding between the two only involves a small elevation change. Also, it seems as if the "number of bike commuters" scores either the proportion of cyclists rather than their absolute numbers, or counts cyclists only at their homes rather than at their destinations.

by David R. on May 14, 2012 12:57 pm • link • report

This is very cool.

It's worth clicking through to the detailed heat maps.
For example, Chicago and Seattle are polar opposites on the hilliness scale, as one would expect. Hills are just there, but bike lanes and bike commuters can change with policy.

Most cities seem to get a lot of their bike commuting from a few key places within the city. E.g. Boston is from the Brookline and Allston area. DC is from Ward 1 and Capitol Hill mostly.

by Ward 1 Guy on May 14, 2012 1:00 pm • link • report

Commuters must be based on home, because the score is so low downtown.

It would be interesting to add in safety data as well (e.g. crashes).

by Gavin on May 14, 2012 1:07 pm • link • report

Yes, commuters is probably based on ACS which is home-based. There's really no other data available.

by MLD on May 14, 2012 1:29 pm • link • report

Ick. This glosses over way too many subtleties to be useful.

1) Living next to the Capital Crescent trail or Metropolitan Branch Trail doesn't mean that you can actually access said trails. Ditto for glossing over bridge elevation.

2) There doesn't seem to be much discussion about bicycle-friendly roads without dedicated lanes. Realistically, this describes most of DC. There are only a small number of roads that you really need to avoid.

3) On that note, there is no bicycle-eating vortex in Foggy Bottom. No idea how that got on the map. Is there really such a distinct gap in bicycle infrastructure over there?

4) Bikeshare and bike parking should weigh in. I spent the weekend in Boston, and let me tell you that CaBi is a much more useful system than Hubway thanks to the many locations, and....

5) Layout of the city. Boston's a notoriously difficult city to navigate. Doubly so on a bicycle. DC's bike routes are well-marked, pretty easy to figure out, and have some semblance of fitting together into a coherent network that follows the grid. Yeah, there are still some pretty big gaps, but it's a start.

by andrew on May 14, 2012 1:39 pm • link • report

GIGO.

by charlie on May 14, 2012 1:41 pm • link • report

1. Would like to see Arlington,

2. Hills are a factor, but facilities/safety are a much bigger factor. From where I live to Clarendon I can basically go one of two ways. The more level route also has a lot more traffic while the calmer streets involve more up and down but I can handle that relative to the fact that cars aren't tearing through.

3. Bike paths (especially miniature ones used where two streets are close but not connected) always seem way steeper than if the road had been connected for cars. I'm sure cost is the main issue along with environmental impact of changing grades but it still sucks to use those. That is the exception to my first point where I'll deal with the street because at least then I can still pedal somewhere outside of my lowest gears.

by X on May 14, 2012 1:49 pm • link • report

I'd hate to see 7th.

by Tom Coumaris on May 14, 2012 1:53 pm • link • report

The bike score also doesn't take into traffic volumes. I feel much safer biking in the roadway in Ward 7 and Ward 8 without bike infrastructure, than I do downtown with bike infrastructure. The traffic volumes are lower and motorists are more patient with cyclists. Usually they give me plenty of room when they pass and/or they'll give me a friendly toot so I know they are passing.

That being said, the topography makes biking over here challenging if you are going east to west within east of the river. The bridges are horrible connectors over the Anacostia River.

by Veronica O. Davis (Ms V) on May 14, 2012 1:55 pm • link • report

>>Yes, commuters is probably based on ACS which is home-based. There's really no other data available.

And this is the data that the House in its infinite wisdom decided was unconstitutional and will be cancelling?

by Michael Perkins on May 14, 2012 2:12 pm • link • report

Sp basically, biking in DC sucks if you do it outside of the L'Enfant City/Georgetown, or leave the bike trails.

by Jake S. on May 14, 2012 3:27 pm • link • report

These maps miss out on suburban residents who enjoy nice commutes by bike from Silver Spring and Bethesda on the Met Branch and Cap Crescent trails, respectively.

by Ward 1 Guy on May 14, 2012 4:06 pm • link • report

Well, I'd say a lot of streets qualify as similar to bike boulevards. Biking isn't prioritized on those streets, but they are secondary arterials and pretty congenial by comparison. That being said, they aren't cycletracks, which are the most conducive to people of all levels actually biking.

So X, that's a big difference between Arlington and DC. We have parallel roads as alternatives. You don't for the main arterials in Arlington.

Another thing that makes biking easier in DC are the radial avenues, which provide "short cuts" along an otherwise orthogonal grid. E.g., with Kansas Ave., it's easy for me to get to many places, and to continue via Columbia Rd. and Florida Ave. to Georgetown or Arlington County.

WRT Jake S. -- I don't know if biking sucks in those places, but hills are definitely an issue. Going up the escarpment across the fall line, around Florida Avenue in the Adams-Morgan to Columbia Heights area, around Howard University on GA Ave. (but I don't like riding uphill from Upshur St. to Missouri Ave.), from Michigan Ave. to Taylor Street on N. Capitol, etc., does suck. People probably have their preferred hills. I don't mind 14th, Sherman, or Georgia, but 15th, 16th, 13th are terrible, and I hate the long incline up Michigan Ave. or on Ft. Totten Drive.

by Richard Layman on May 14, 2012 9:24 pm • link • report

In my opinion, including bike lanes in the data skews the numbers. Many of us find bike lanes to be hazardous. I avoid them like the plague, as they are often in the door zone of parked cars, and they tend to place us outside the focus zone of motorists.

by Ian Cooper on May 15, 2012 7:36 am • link • report

I think this is a map of where young urban professionals live. We bicyclists tend to come from a certain demographic, and that's the demographic that is choosing to move into neighborhoods close to downtown.

Also -- "descriptive, not proscriptive" -- I think the word you want is "prescriptive".

by Jack on May 15, 2012 9:50 am • link • report