NolaCycle GIS shapefiles, posters, papers, and powerpoints to help you with your bicycle mapping projects

After some digging around, we've recovered the GIS files for the NolaCycle map (current as of April 1, 2010).  I've posted these, and some other documents people might find informative, online at https://sites.google.com/a/nolacycle.com/nolacycle-files/.  Graduate students, planner, and bicycle advocates, please feel free to use these documents to help you with your projects.  If anyone is interested in using our data for a commercial project, such as a mobile app, please email me at lauren(at)nolacycle.com for special permission, as I would require you to make some donations to local bicycle organizations in exchange. 

We're working on getting some things fixed on the NolaCycle Map site so we can download the database again to use the updated information (though it's not very current either).  If anyone is interested in a login to the NolaCycle map site to do updates in their neighborhood, let us know.

Crowd-sourced bicycle mapping has come a long way since NolaCycle started in 2008.  If you're interested in checking out some cool new projects that harness the power of smartphones, look into Hit the Pothole and CycleTracks.

If you'd like an up-to-date map of official bicycle routes in New Orleans, Bike Easy's Bike Map and Guide to Safe Cycling is available online as a PDF.

Thanks for all your help and support over the years! 

Current status of mapped areas

NolaCycle has mapped a lot of New Orleans since we started in July 2008. Here's the newest image showing the areas we've collected data for. The section and labels relate to the dimensions and file name of the each map section volunteers have filled out. New Orleans south of I-610 and Florida Avenue, has been mapped with the exception of a few areas that were not completed due to rain or bike trouble (it's hard to map with a flat tire).

More events will be taking place in 2010 to map the rest of the 9th Ward, Lakeview, the greater Gentilly area, Algiers, and parts of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans East. As always, the more volunteers interested in mapping, organizing, and promoting, the more we can do.


As you can see when you look at our Bike Map website, not every map section has been added to the online map. We still need help from volunteers to get the data from the paper sheets (or the online scans) onto the website. This is really easy to do, and anyone with a computer and internet access can help. NolaCycle will be holding a couple "working session" where we gather together to enter data in January. If you'd like to help, keep an eye posted for events or e-mail us so we can explain the process and get you a login to enter data.

Wish you had a 36"x48" poster of the NolaCycle project for your wall? Dream no more - the poster is DONE!!!

One part of the "things I need to do before U.C. will let me go" is COMPLETE and will be printing off tomorrow afternoon.

My poster for NolaCycle can be seen in full-size and full-color on the 5000 level of DAAP (College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning) on the "wooden floor" (by the fancy glassed-in gallery, across the way from the library and college office) all next week. The opening reception for DAAPworks (our college-wide senior show) is Tuesday evening from 5 to 9pm. You can check out not just the world-changing, super exciting planning projects, but also paintings, photographs, sculptures, models, clothing, and posters from all the other programs.

I hear there will be free food...maybe booze? I bet the School of Design will have booze in their gallery. I'll meet you there! Its always better to tell people all about New Orleans when you're buzzed.

In you're not living in exile in Ohio like I am, you can download a small PDF of the poster. It sums up the project in about 2000 words and has pretty pictures - you might even be in one of my pretty pictures! Jade, Andy, Liz, Amanda and Tom are, along with a handful of others. The poster is much more enjoyable to read than my almost 100 page capstone paper. Who knew you could write damn near 70 pages about cycling in New Orleans? (I filled those other 30 pages with maps, pictures, and newspaper clippings - which is NOT cheating because formatting graphics is hard work).


NolaCycle Bike Map Project by Lauren Rae Sullivan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

New draft map of NolaCycle data

Here's a new draft map of the NolaCycle data. It's just for a small area because we're planning on taking a different approach to digitizing the data than originally planned. I'll post the information on some upcoming digitizing/graphics meetings for July later in the month. If you're into computer programming or GIS, then those will be the meetings for you!

In the mean time, check this map out. From this map you can design your own custom routes. NolaCycle will be doing some recommended routes as well (likely will have a "data map" and a "route map" when it's all said and done), but I didn't feel comfortable drawing up recommended routes without being able to double-check them physically before posting them online. If you see any errors with the data on this map, leave a comment or e-mail me so I can make the corrections.


This work by NolaCycle Bike Map Project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Keep an eye out for the June 7th edition of the Gambit Weekly

Not this coming week's Gambit, but the following week's edition is going to have a special section on cycling in New Orleans, so make sure to grab one early! I'll post the links to the stories when they come out so you can check them out online too.

Also, we're one hit away from being viewed on 5300 computers (the counter goes by IP addresses, not hits). That's pretty awesome when you think that NolaCycle only started a little less than a year ago and the maps aren't even completed yet. Thanks everyone who's checked us out on here!

I'm really excited about getting back in town (just a little more than 3 weeks away!) so NolaCycle can get the ball rolling on digital outputs for the data and finish up the PDF map. If you want to get on the "digitizing and graphics" team, shoot me an e-mail and I'll put you on that mailing list. Tom and I will be organizing meetings at the end of June or early July, so get on the list so we can work with you to set up meeting times that fit your schedule.

Also, there are lots of updates about the project and all types of kinda interesting research (if you're into planning and public policy you'll find it interesting) I did for my capstone that I'll be posting online after June 9th (only 10 more days until I present the project to my professors....kinda scary). I won't be posting the entire document until later in June though because I'll likely make some more edits after I get feedback from my adviser.

Check out Andy Menking's Local Food Map with bike routes!

Mapping volunteer Andy Menking has used the NolaCycle date to create a bike route map in GIS connecting local food sources (farmers markets, community gardens, and a couple produce stores) to one-another (because sometimes you have to go Hollygrove and Crescent City to find all the ingredients for your weekend feast) and to the East Bank neighborhoods.

I'm really excited that our data set has been put into use even before our map is done!

NolaCycle will be working with Andy's help to build off this map to create a "Bike to the Market" map for the Crescent City Farmers market this summer. Keep posted and look for it around later July or August!

Updates, Updates & a rescheduled mapping event

It was kind of a yucky day today, so we're going to try the 7th Ward area again next Sunday. We'll be meeting a the neutral ground at the intersection of N. Tonti, Bayou, and Esplanade this time though. It's a nicer little corner there. We'll be meeting at 1pm this time too so you all can sleep an extra hour.

Also, graphics meeting is tomorrow at 7pm. E-mail me, lauren@nolacycle.com if you'd like to attend!

Finally, here's the map of the updated completed areas.

Started making the digital map! Here's a little taste of the draft

So last night I as watched CSI, 11th Hour, and Law and Order (Why are there only crime shows on on Thursday nights?), I started converting the field data into a digital file. I was averaging about 45 minutes a neighborhood, but that's mostly because I kept changing colors and line weights. Here's a little screen shot of some of what I was working on last night. All the colors are just working colors. I won't keep the background purple - it will most likely be white. I think I like the blue, yellow, and red for the lines. The blue stands out well and I think blue is pretty positive color. Yellow fades back a bit, but most of the roads in New Orleans fall into that moderate category, so that works well because it doesn't need to stand out since you can assume a road will probably be of moderate quality. I want a strong color like red for the poor quality roads because you need to be able to easily see them to know to avoid them. I could use purple...maybe magenta. I want to avoid using red because some people can't see red, so if you can think of another good color for poor pavement quality roads, I'm open to your input. Blue = good pavement. Yellow = moderate. Red = poor. The fatter lines = wide roads. Dashed lines = fast travel speed of cars.

Once I figure out how I want all the labels to be and such, I'll upload some of the completed neighborhoods so you can use them right now. I need to double check some of the roads because I'm using the state's road file, which includes private drives, so this is by no means a final. Also the labels are all over the place - that'll take forever to correct too. But I love the cyclists of New Orleans, so I'll make it look extra pretty for you all even if I have to spend an hour a night until June to finish it!

Longer distance crosstown routes - your NolaCycle "take home project"

Many of you know that the first NolaCycle map is just going to the East Bank south of I-610 due to time restrictions with graduation in June and having to have something final to turn in.  We're planning on continuing NolaCycle after June so we can map the whole city, West Bank, New Orleans East, and all.  To make up for the lack of comprehensive coverage of these areas on NolaCycle Version 1, I would like to include some recommended crosstown routes on a smaller supplemental map on the backside of the main map (or page 2 if you were to download the map online).  

I think the best way to do crosstown routes is for community members to submit some of their preferred routes they take to get to school, work, parks, etc.  Since the route map is going to smaller, I would like to only include a handful of really helpful routes for people to use.  I'd like to input from people on this idea though - how to rate the routes (easy, difficult, fast, slow, high or low traffic, etc.), where should the routes go, how should people submit routes to me, etc.  So this is the fun part where you get to tell me what to do!  Comment away my crosstown commuting friends!

updates.

hey all. here's what we got this week:
apparently we were a bit lazy. or just a little sleepy because of the awesome job we did in the past two weeks.

so here's what it looks like all together! it looks even better from far away and if you squint your eyes. go ahead and try it: doesn't it look like we've done a lot of work?

now, we don't have any more dates planned so far... but we are meeting this week to conspire about what to do next. if you have any suggestions or strategies, please share them! i don't think we'll be mapping this coming weekend, the next weekend (voodoo fest), and maybe even the next weekend (halloween hangovers). but we'll be back soon!

this weekend's haul

this weekend we got this much done:




which brings our grand total thus far to something like this:



the grid is closing in!


thank you to all of those who come out, and those who don't but still theoretically support us.