This is Johnny Lam. It's been awhile since I last visited this forum but on my recent visit to Bike Oven a few weeks ago there were a few questions from one of the attendees of the Wednesday night's class with Harv on Bicycle Evaluation. She was wondering what was the best route from USC to Hollywood on bike. While JHarv and a few folks scoured Google Maps to find her the best way to go, this prompted me of an idea of perhaps creating a section on the Bike Oven website or maybe a category here on the forum which outlines known safe bike routes to certain destinations. Users of these page can ask what's the best route from a particular starting point and end point and folks can discuss this. And if people asks at the shop, this maybe something we can pull up and find the routes for them.
This is just an idea since I know I always have questions of the best bike friendly routes around LA and folks seem to agree that there isn't a good collection of maps found on the Internet. I've tried looking on Bikely.com or even C.I.C.L.E's route maps but those are not as comprehensive.
Bike Metro has a pretty good mapping function that allows you to adjust route for hill and traffic tolerance. (www.bikemetro.com) Of course, nothing replaces first hand knowledge though. Might be hard to build a list of specific routes since there are so many variables, especially on the east side where we aren't very grid bound. But certainly could build up a list of "good" and "bad" particular streets or areas. Then people could try to incorparate those recommendations into their specific trip. A list of routes from various campuses to major local points might work too as I would assume a lot of people asking for this just got to college and don't know their way around yet.
In my humble opinion, the bikemetro.com site is difficult to use and the maps are not as clear as the other sites I've mentioned. We don't necessarily need a map but perhaps a street name by street name direction so that a person can follow it on the map would work. I understand that there are unlimited options for some routes but that is why having an open forum allows this to be a bit more organic so people who suggest a route can put disclaimers like "ride only in day time" or "watch for potholes". It is up to the person who needs the direction to ask further questions or follow someone else who may have an alternative path.
Regardless of the situation, I'm up for anything else besides the site's that are available. Having an interaction via a forum of some sort would certainly help open up dialogues between folks who have intimate knowledge of the city and those who don't. Would people on this forum object if I ask for routes in the "Rides" categories/section of this forum? The "Rides" section seem to accurately reflect what I'm asking compared to the others categories.
a site called www.mapmyride.com has some routes posted by folks that actually ride them so that may be what you are looking for. The basic free package has a lot of features at least as good as Bikemetro and I've found that Bikemetro site is down a lot......