From Velo News
Most bike maps are too complicated.
This is not because I am a simpleton, I like to think. It’s because all those curves and corners and superfluous details just get in the way of the goal, which is figuring out where to ride, how to ride there, and how hard it will be.
There is a solution. A new bike map, the one you see above, is not too complicated.
Graphic designer Zach Lee’s aptly named Boulder Bike Map borrows from subway schematics and ski resort maps to present Boulder, Colorado’s, extensive road (and groad) rides in a manner that is simultaneously detailed and wonderfully simple.
Lee pared down the mass of information found on traditional road or trail maps using the well-established design language of Harry Beck’s original London Tube map. He then added cycling-specific difficulty ratings for each road using the color-coding of ski resort maps. Green is easy, blue is moderate, black is nasty. Extremely nasty climbs (the double black ski equivalent) are red because, as Nigel Tufnel taught us, a black line can be none more black than it already is.
The result is a map that provides the essentials — where does the road go? What does it connect to? How hard is it to ride? Is there a coffee shop at the end?…
Read the full article HERE
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