About

At BikeMaps we love biking as much as we love maps! Our goal is to map your cycling experience to make biking safer. You know your local cycling trouble spots and we want you to map them. Your knowledge of cycling safety, hazards, and even bike thefts will be analyzed using GIS and statistics to identify hot spots of cycling safety, risk, and crime. We are constantly updating our maps and technology, so send us feedback. And stay tuned for updated safety maps generated from YOUR biking experience.

Contact

Do you have questions, comments, or feedback about bikemaps.org? We would love to hear from you! Email us at info@bikemaps.org.

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FAQ

Why are you collecting this information?
Only ~30% of bike collision data are collected and there is no centralized reporting system. BikeMaps.org is a unique tool that let's citizens build a database by mapping their riding experience.

What will you do with the data?
The BikeMaps.org team will analyze data to determine factors that influence cycling safety. We also have plans to build tools to help people plan safer routes and to transfer these to planners in your area.

How can citizens and municipalities monitor areas of interest to them?
By registering and logging in you will be able to trace a riding or management region of interest using the tool. Each time you login you will be alerted to recent mapping in your region by the tool.

I clicked submit, but noticed that my pin isn't in the right location. How can I fix it?
Email us at info@bikemaps.org with details about the time and location of your report and we will move it.

Do you have a video tutorial?
Yes! Here’s a link to a video that one of our followers made.

Why does the Strava heat map disappear when I zoom in?
Strava restricts street-level heat maps due to privacy and security concerns. If you are a registered Strava user, you can explore the global heatmap.

How can I get involved?
You can share the website on social media, host a mapping demo night, or volunteer to do GIS or development. If you own a bike store or small business, you can advertise BikeMaps.org. We are also on the lookout for more research funding to further develop the technology and expand the study. Or, perhaps your group has GIS data that may improve BikeMaps.org.

Why can't I access my geolocation on my mobile device?
If you respond 'allow' to the BikeMaps.org request to use your location but still get a 'user denied geolocation' error, it might be that your privacy settings don't allow your browser itself to access your location. Check if your browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari) has location permissions in your privacy settings.

Publications

Check out our published work for a more in depth description of our project

Supporters

Team

Dr. Trisalyn Nelson

Founder of BikeMaps.org

Trisalyn Nelson

Trisalyn is the founder of BikeMaps.org. She is a geography professor at University California Santa Barbara and the Jack and Laura Dangermond Chair of Geography. She is also adjunct faculty at the University of Victoria. As a mom, avid cyclist, and data scientist, Trisalyn's vision for BikeMaps.org is to make bicycling more accessible to more people by improving data for decision making.

Dr. Meghan Winters

Metro Vancouver Research Lead

Meghan Winters

Meghan Winters is a Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. Her research focuses on ways that cities and their infrastructure can play a role in promoting healthy and safe transportation, for people of all ages and abilities. She is happiest when working in close collaboration with cities and stakeholders to conduct research and create tools that address real-world challenges.

Karen Laberee, MSc.

Executive Director

Karen Laberee

Karen has been part of the BikeMaps.org team since the project began in 2014. She has managed many aspects of the project and has been heavily involved in community outreach and engagement. Karen is also the project coordinator for WalkRollMap.org, CanBICS, and INTERACT Victoria. In her personal life, Karen has gained considerable experience volunteering on numerous boards that support amateur sports or community initiatives. Most weekends, Karen can be found running the beautiful trails around Victoria.

Dr. Colin Ferster

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Dr. Colin Ferster

Colin uses traditional and emerging geographic data to better understand people and their environments. A long-time city and mountain biker, Colin is happy to be part of the BikeMaps.org team as a developer and researcher because it combines his favorite things: maps, apps, people, and bikes!

Moreno Zanotto, MSc.

Communication and Outreach, Metro Vancouver

Moreno Zanotto

Moreno joined the BikeMaps team in Fall of 2015. He is based in Vancouver and helps coordinate BikeMaps.org promotion and community outreach efforts in the region. A graduate of SFU’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Moreno completed his thesis research on the impending Vancouver public bike share system. Moreno views cycling as a solution to many health, social, and environmental problems, and as the centrepiece of a more sustainable, egalitarian, and inclusive society.

Jaimy Fischer

Research Assistant

Jaimy Fischer

Jaimy joined the BikeMaps team in 2016. She is currently pursuing her PhD with Dr. Meghan Winters at Simon Fraser University. As part of her work, Jaimy will be looking at the link between investment in All Ages and Abilities (AAA) bicycle infrastructure and ridership and safety outcomes. Her work is part of the larger Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities project, and through it she’ll be advancing skills in predictive modelling and spatial analysis approaches to model bicycling exposure and safety.

Daniel Fuller

Atlantic Research Lead

Daniel Fuller

Daniel Fuller is a Canada Research Chair in Population Physical Activity in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial University. His research is focused on using wearable technologies to study physical activity, transportation interventions, and equity in urban spaces. Dan has an MSc in Kinesiology from the University of Saskatchewan, a PhD in Public Health from Université de Montréal. Dan is the Principal Investigator on the INTERACT team and Neighbourhood Factors Team co-lead of the Canadian Urban Environmental Health (CANUE) Research Consortium. He spends free time chasing his two rambunctious kids.

Finn Short

Developer

Finn Short

Finn studied geography at VIU in Nanaimo and computer science at Concordia in Montreal, and is excited to be contributing to the Bikemaps team as a software developer. Outside the office they enjoy mountain biking, running, and rock climbing.

Darren Boss, MSc.

Developer

Karen Laberee

Darren completed his MSc in the SPAR lab at UVic in 2017. He continues his involvement with BikeMaps and is the lead developer for WalkRollMap.org. When not coding away, Darren enjoys mountain biking, skiing and hiking.

Dr. Michael Branion-Calles

Alumni

Michael Branion-Calles

Michael is currently a Post Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. As a part of his PhD, Michael used data collected on BikeMaps.org to investigate the link between active transport, health and safety. Michael is looking forward to leveraging the power of crowd-sourced data in order to better understand cycling safety.

Ben Jestico, MSc.

Alumni

Ben Jestico

Ben was BikeMaps.org’s first graduate student and was instrumental in the successful outreach in the early days of BikeMaps.org. For his MSc research, Ben compared ridership data collected manually to those using crowdsourced apps such as Strava (http://bit.ly/2af2Cpc). Ben’s research also used data collected on BikeMaps.org to study incidents at multiuse trail and road intersections.

Jeneva Beairsto

Alumni

Jeneva Beairsto

Jeneva has an M.Sc. in Urban Analytics from the University of Glasgow, and a Bachelor of Arts and Science from Quest University Canada. Her past research has focused on a range of topics related to active transportation: including the optimization of distance-based transit fares and a user-based incentive approach to rebalancing station-based bike-sharing systems. Jeneva is a former Canadian National Wushu (Chinese martials arts) Team member and enjoys spending time doing anything active.

Taylor Denouden, MMath

Alumni, Developer

Taylor Denouden

A graduate of the Geomatics program at the University of Victoria, Taylor is the developer behind the BikeMaps website. Taylor went on to earn a Master of Mathematics in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He is now working at the Hakai Institute where he is creating image classification tools for drone and fixed wing imagery along with various other tools for geospatial applications.