Seattle bike routes on Twitter

If you're on Twitter you should check out a new stream I created just for Seattle bike routes: http://twitter.com/seattlebikemaps (and if you're not on Twitter you can still browse the routes and click the links to the maps themselves).

Each tweet (or message for the Luddites out there) is a link to a bike map on veloroutes.org along with the route name and distance. Hopefully a useful tool for Seattle cyclists.

A note: since there are over 45,000 routes saved on veloroutes.org - and thousands of Seattle routes - it will take a while for the tweets to catch up. (Twitter limits you to 150 tweets a day) So if you follow this stream expect about 150 tweets a day.

Once the routes are caught up every time someone saves a route on veloroutes.org with "seattle" in the name/title/tags it will be automatically tweeted here. Just another way to spread Seattle bike routes with elevation data.

Cycling Cue-Sheets For the Masses!

Today I'm releasing a feature on veloroutes that will take the route you create and generate turn-by-turn directions automatically! Here's an example of the output for a route I clicked:

Cue sheet for downtown to the ave

key: -:straight, R:right, L:left, Rev:reverse

Total distance: 4.97 miles

Description:

yeah, you could take eastlake for a less-hilly route, but fuck that! let’s do some hills!

distance	heading	intersection	area	elevation
0 mi	- (East)	1st Ave & Cherry St	Seattle, King County, WA	38.2 ft
0.29 mi	L (North)	Cherry St & 6th Ave	Seattle, King County, WA	195.0 ft
0.59 mi	R (East)	Seneca St & 6th Ave	Seattle, King County, WA	200.3 ft
1.08 mi	Rev (West)	Boylston Ave & Seneca St	Seattle, King County, WA	335.4 ft
1.14 mi	Rev (East)	University St & Boylston Ave	Seattle, King County, WA	320.4 ft
1.28 mi	L (North)	Broadway & E Union St	Seattle, King County, WA	295.2 ft
2.12 mi	R (East)	Broadway E & E Roy St	Seattle, King County, WA	341.3 ft
2.15 mi	L (North)	E Roy St & 10th Ave E	Seattle, King County, WA	345.9 ft
3.39 mi	L (West)	10th Ave E & E Roanoke St	Seattle, King County, WA	166.6 ft
3.47 mi	R (North)	E Roanoke St & Harvard Ave E	Seattle, King County, WA	158.3 ft
4.41 mi	R (East)	Roosevelt Way NE & NE Campus Pky	Seattle, King County, WA	98.7 ft
4.61 mi	L (North)	NE Campus Pky & University Way NE	Seattle, King County, WA	110.0 ft

You can read more about this feature on the veloroutes forum post about it. If you want to go ahead and create your route go to the map.

(If you haven't heard of veloroutes, check it out! It's actually run by a cyclist (me), unlike some another bike-mapping site run by a corporation. And now it generates cue-sheets like that other mapping site that used to be really popular, but seems to be constantly broken. Sure, those other sites may have pretty designs, but my site's got heart!)