Bicycle paths, lanes and routes
Requested By: Alex deVries
Tagged:
bicycle ocp
The City of Ottawa put out a bicycle map in 2006/2007, and they are to be updating it soon.
I understand from city staff that such an argis file exists. It would be really helpful if the City could release a KML of the current infrastructure.
Also of use would be the Ottawa Cycling Plan maps that show the future vision or plan for cycling.
- A
Votes in favour: 100%
Degree of contention:
Very Low
There are 15 comments:
posted Nov 10, 2010
Hi Alex, we have requested this data set from the department that has it. Hopefully we can make it available shortly (by early December). I know it's not easy to use, but did you see our eMap version: http://apps104.ottawa.ca/emap/?lang=en&emapver=lite&MAPNAME=ottawa_cycling.mwf
posted Nov 10, 2010
Hey Robert,
Yeah, I haven't really enjoyed my emap experience. It barely works under Safari, won't let me print, and really only shows a wireframe of what the paths are, with no integration to Google Maps or Bing.
I found a PDF lingering around here: http://www.bikedump.com/bikepath.html
Which apparently isn't up to date. I sometimes use that as a reference.
All of this is part of trying to integrate cycling map data on ottawabikingproblems.ca. Having that data would greatly add to online biking resources.
posted Nov 10, 2010
Oh, and thanks for getting that from Robin and others in the cycling department! I'm looking forward to it next month.
posted Nov 11, 2010
Looking forward to this one, I had requested it informally at one of the Open Data meeting and was about to post a formal request ! I suppose the trails from Gatineau Park would have to be requested from the NCC or they would come with this dataset?
Viv
posted Dec 16, 2010
BTW, I paid the $5 for an access to information request back at the beginning of December as I really wanted this information in time for my Open Data competition entry. I hope when it comes out of the system (30 days, if I understood it correctly), I hope it'll be distributed here.
(I did the same thing for the bicycle accident data.... it got sent off to the police. I'm not expecting that quickly.)
posted Dec 17, 2010
I was really hoping to get this information in time for the App competition too. There is still time but it is going to be really short. Apparently Google got some data: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/11/30/google-bike-directions.html
I had asked the bicycle accident data to the police directly at the beginning of November and they sent me off to the city so there is something wrong somewhere...
posted Dec 23, 2010
Hi, our apologies. This request is in with the department but we have yet to get the information available to post, and while there is a chance that we'll have some last minute data posted before the close of the contest I can't confirm this one will be available by then. You are right about the google data, and I haven't been able to track down where that got their information from, but it would seem to be available from somewhere.
I will update this thread if/when the feed is up.
posted Dec 24, 2010
First, let me say that I think Open Data is a great project from the city and shows considerable progress that is good for us.
I don't fault the people like Robert Giggey who are clearly working hard to get data (and are responsive to specific requests), but in my case the system isn't working.
I've been after my requested information now for about a year. I followed the most friendly course: - contacted the department directly - went through 311 - went here at dataott.org
From what I can tell, the blockage is always at the holders of the department.
I am requesting completely reasonable data. I know it exists because I've seen the processed results. I know this is sitting on someone's hard disk; all that's required is to zip it up and email it or have it posted. I keep trying to think this is some sort of oversight and there's no actual conspiracy to hold the data back.
It bothered me quite a bit to have to go through MFIPPA to get the data that citizens have a right to see. Doing this forces me to have an overly aggressive dialog with the department involved. It also puts the request into a process-heavy system that costs taxpayers far more than the $5 I paid for the request. I should be able to get the data within 30 calendar days, which I believe is January 4th.
If Open Data in Ottawa is actually going to be successful, there needs to be a culture of openness across the city departments that does not appear to exist.
posted Dec 28, 2010
I used OpenStreetMap as a source for this data for my entry into the apps competition. My understanding is there are still some licensing issues unless your name is Google with the city's open data. The Open Street Map data is fairly good and comes from people wandering around noting down which roads have cycle lanes then entering them in the Map.
"Paved Hard Shoulders" are not rendered in the web cycle map but otherwise http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=45.394&lon=-75.6655&zoom=12&layers=C gives a good idea of what is there. The underlying data is available with the "paved hard shoulder" tags on the roads and I managed to include them. One difficulty is the unsigned recommended routes. There is nothing for the mapper to see and the only source is the copyrighted City maps.
posted Feb 14, 2011
I have news on this too.
I heard back from my MFIPPA, and they pointed me to the Ottawa Cycling Plan, which doesn't have what I'm looking for (as it isn't current, and they are embedded in PDFs).
After talking to some people in the bicycle department (under Vivi Chi), I do accept that the only bike map data they actually have is on paper. Until now.
I happen to be given a draft PDF version of the 2010/11 map. It is only a draft, but at least we know it exists, and we can be sure that it was generated somehow from some data available electronically.
If you hunt around, you can find a PDF of the 2006/07 map. You can see it here: http://city.ottawa.on.ca/cityservices/traffic/pdf/cyclingmap.pdf
Strangely, I can only find the link to this map on a site for the Bike Dump.
I have never gotten the full-featured java map browser working on any browser on my Mac or Linux. This isn't portable, and won't help me print out the map for a day's bike ride.
We really need SHP files!
posted Jun 3, 2011
Good news: the new cycling map has been released http://www.capitalcyclingmap.ca/
Bad news: the site is bad. Like really bad. Which makes it even more urgent for the cycling path data to be released, so citizen hacker cyclist mappers can do a much better version.
posted Jun 3, 2011
Also incidentally bbbike.org extracts the cycling layer from OpenStreetMaps and lets you do bike routes
http://www.bbbike.org/Ottawa/
I know the creator if anyone wants technical info. Is there an OpenStreetMap community in Ottawa?
posted Jun 7, 2011
Hi, sorry to have to remain anonymous ...
There is a good chance that the bike lanes you see on the PDF maps are just drawn graphically on a base map based on the knowledge of city staff, and that there is no electronic line in a GIS database anywhere that represents this facility.
Yeah, I too dislike the user interfaces at capitalcyclingmap.ca and on the city's website. Just give me a regular PDF any day and I'll deal with it myself.
posted Aug 9, 2011
We're supposed to be posting a google map friendly version of the bike maps very soon on the opendata site. The data is what's used on: http://traffic.ottawa.ca/. It might not be completely up to date to start but I'll be looking to have it completed ASAP (hopefully before summer ends). Thank-you everyone for your patience - the absense of an opendata lead for several months slowed down/stopped all of the requests.
posted Oct 17, 2011
Bike maps are now up in the catalogue: http://is.gd/vtZ6Nw Including KML, SHP, and DWG.
Thanks everyone for your patience.
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