A Bike Route Map That Harry Beck Would Be Proud Of

A "wonderfully simplified" map of San Francisco's best bicycle routes modeled on Harry Beck's revolutionary map for the London Underground aims to encourage people to saddle up through clean graphic design.

1 minute read

November 13, 2013, 8:00 AM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Over the weekend, we looked at the importance of comparing time and cost savings for encouraging bike use over other transportation modes. Another way to get potential riders to grab two wheels is to make clear the best ways to navigate a city's existing bicycle infrastructure. That's the idea, at least, behind Mat Kladney's "San Francisco Bicycle System" [PDF], a "wonderfully simplified version of San Francisco's bicycle infrastructure, with routes between popular destinations given as colorized tubes not unlike the city's metro map," writes Eric Jaffe.

"Kladney purposefully made design references to urban subway maps because he believes people are more apt to bike if they think it'll be as easy as riding the train. 'Need to get from Downtown to the Bernal Heights? Just follow the Blue Line,' he says. 'This simplicity will re-frame the existing San Francisco bicycle lanes as the San Francisco Bicycle System and will help convince more people to saddle up and take to the streets.'"

Tuesday, November 12, 2013 in The Atlantic Cities

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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