Map Design: Bike Share Systems

Background

Bike share as an idea at the time of the development of these maps was still relatively new, and, for some, bicycles as a mobility option was considered crazy, only knowing how to navigate cities behind the wheel of a car. With that, designing maps had to overcome a unique challenge. How do you communicate station locations while simultaneously showing routes of varying degrees of comfort without overwhelming the first-time rider?

Developing the Design

The design language that evolved helped those new to cycling, most bike share users, better navigate their city with maps displayed at station locations around the city. These station maps also served as additional wayfinding for pedestrians, located every few blocks, as each featured key travel destinations. This last point also raised another challenge, each time a new piece of infrastructure was added or a station was changed, we would have to alter maps at each location, a very costly update.

The design language started with Jeremy Rex, Graphic Designer with the city of Tampa, who devised a visual method to show upcoming infrastructure using a simple dotted pattern on the city’s map in early 2014. This would be the starting point for Coast Tampa’s map as well. “Good artists copy; great artists steal,” right? I’m not sure I’ll put myself in that wheelhouse, but I’ll give credit where credit is due!

Overcoming our second design challenge, the possibility of moving bike share hubs at a moments notice, be it for construction, a general conflict, or expansion at a more optimal location around the corner I decided on printing blank maps, utilizing small vinyl icon stickers applied and removed as needed. While this decision made initial installation slightly more time-consuming, it paid off as base maps were able to stay in place for years, significantly reducing costs despite many station moves and system expansions.

The Process

Each map, including the simpler Ottawa, CA map developed quickly for promotion, was created using a software called Mapertive, built on OpenStreetMap and GPS data source. I was able to select data based on several parameters and export each file to an Illustrator document. Unfortunately, exporting was only able to provide a jumble of vector-based graphics and considerable effort had to be put forth to separate shapes by type, enabling quick editing and different display scales, including highways, arterials, neighborhood streets, alleys, parks, points of interest and more. Grouping shapes in this way meant I could quickly customize a map’s font size and color palette for large scale sign printing a small scaled social media post, showing only one or two blocks in only a few minutes.

Evolving the Design

In 2017, as the Coast program expanded to St. Petersburg, I wanted to enhance the design language further. The city has the great benefit of being built on a rigid grid system, which funneled automotive traffic down select streets, leaving others nearly empty, sans a resident occasionally traversing a short distance of asphalt to get to their front door. These quieter streets formed a grid of their own, dubbed “Neighborhood Greenways,” seen above in green, enabling people of all experience levels to connect with existing cycling infrastructure across the city easily.