Bike Facilities Maps

Maricopa County / Phoenix area

I had a hard time finding this, so here it is

• www.azmag.gov/Programs/Maps-and-Data/Bikeways

It’s maintained by MAG’s (Maricopa Assoc of Gov’ts) Active Transportation Committee (formerly the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee) and note that the MAG region includes not only Maricopa, but also portions of Pinal and Gila counties. There is a pretty neet online version that overlays google maps, or an old-school .pdf download (it’s pretty big)., and another version that has something to do with mobile/gps.

Alternately, Maricopa County DOT (“McDOT”) has an active transportation plan along with an interactive map that is built from the same database as above, but in this version, users can leave comments about specific areas of concern for bicycling / walking.

There is also a printed City of Tempe published map I’ve seen floating around; not sure if it’s online.

On the MAG interactive map, designated bike lanes are clearly labeled (they’re ‘blue’); and are distinct from other sorts of not-bike lanes, e.g. bike routes.

Pima County / Tucson area

There are two i know of; perhaps/presumably based on the same data. One is published apparently by the Pima County Dept of Transportation. Currently linked here at the Pima county bicycle and Pedestrian Program. There are several links there, e.g. current link to page1 Tucson area.

This map suffers from far too much ‘red’ which the key says:

Bike Route with Striped Shoulder, Bus/Bike Lanes
On major street, with white-edge line, approx. 4 ft. to 10 ft.
wide paved shoulder, with speed limits of 25 mph or more.
Includes Bus/Bike Lanes on major streets, 10-12 ft. bus and right-turn lane, shared use with bicycles.

Virtually every major road throughout the region is ‘red’. Are these designated bike lanes, or not? (a bike lane is part of the roadway, a shoulder is not). What is frustrating is the answer seems to depend on when (it seems to evolve over time) and who asks the question, and who is answering.

There is a second map, covering the same territory, at pagregion.org. and current link to .pdf. Here we see virtually all major streets (the same streets, by the way) are ‘blue’ which the key says are “Bike Lane”.  Really? Are these really all designated bike lanes? Are they wide enough to be bike lanes? E.g. The Dodge Bridge is in ‘blue’.

Flagstaff

City of Flagstaff bike map page.Major streets are all marked in ‘purple’ , which the key says is

Bike Lane or Shoulder: An outside lane of four to five feet in width for the exclusive use of bicycles, separated from vehicular lanes by a white stripe. This definition include bike lanes designated by signing and pavement markings, as well as paved shoulders delineated by a stripe, but not pavement markings or signing.

So there’s no way to tell from the map what is a Bike Lane and what is a shoulder. Nice. And by the way, Flagstaff,  shoulders are not lanes.

As far as i can tell, there’s not really a Coconino county bikeways map.

Summary

MAG (Maricopa) Bikeways map is honest. The maps for Tuscon, Pima, PAGregion, and Flagstaff are at best non-informative and at worst dishonest.