new online montreal bike-path map
There's a new bike map in town, pardners, pedalmontreal.ca. It shows bike paths and bixi stations in a google-maps sourced map engine.
Research reveals that the map is just as out of date as the other online maps available to Montreal citizens. Missing is the entire cote-ste-catherine bike path, and the rachel bike path is shown in its outdated missing-link version. All 533 km of Montreal bike path are not on this map!
Topping off our list of complaints is the fact that the map-window is petit, and that's not a good thing in a map.
We encourage the developer to update the map with this year bike path improvements.
Hmm, on the plus side, it is kind of fun to see montreal bike maps combined with google maps. The website is bilingual, and different bike path types are color-coded.
What we would change: identify the direction of the bike path, some are one-way only. And we'd let the map occupy the full screen, please! And don't forget to get the information up-to-date, this is really important.
Conclusion: the data is so last year, but other wise an interesting new addition to answer the question "where is the closest bike path?" We can reveal that this blog gets the most hits from google searches for "montreal bike path." If the developer keeps it up to date it will be a good place to answer that search question.
Adding the Bixi Stations on the map is a good thing - other map makers take note!
posted by Cycle Fun Montreal @ 6:50 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I would like to confirm that this really is a just a project of interest for a normal Montrealer, or a 'grassroots' effort if you'd like to call it that. Some comments:
(1) While I agree that the information may not be completely up to date, a decision was made to keep this map inline with other 'offical' resources, as described in the About section. I have no affiliation with the city or anyone else, therefore no access to their data, updated or not. I did not feel comfortable just adding paths to the map that were not referenced anywhere else hence the omissions. Same goes for path directions.
(2) You are right that a whois search of the site returns the domain holder as Tucows. This is simply an act of privacy, otherwise any average Joe would have access to the name, address, phone number, etc. that I used when registering the domain. Google "domain privacy" for more information.
(3) The size of the map window was chosen to keep load times and the website experience consistent for many users. Not everyone has the same screen resolution, browser configuration, nor viewing preferences.
(4) "corporate enterprise", "off-shored project", I love your imagination! Don't worry I'm not "the man".
(5) "get off his/her duff", "no regard for actually having a locally-informed, up-to-date quality product", jeez man, just trying to do something nice for the community. I have a normal job like everyone else, but I still spent hours putting this together. I completely respect your right to criticize, but I hope you understand that this isn't big/full-time/funded project.
Hope this clears some things up.
merci pour l'info. Happy to hear that you're not "the man."
Thanks for making a difference.
Just to follow up on some of the topics mentioned in this post: The map has recently been updated to match the long awaited 2010 map provided by the City of Montreal. Also, the width of the map now scales automatically to fill the user's browser window, so one can see as large a map as their monitor will allow.
I was hoping to send you this info for perhaps a new post, but I can't find any contact information anywhere.
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