Fires, Floods, Storms: Anticipate Trouble With Our Interactive Route Network Map
June 23, 2016
Did you know Adventure Cycling’s interactive route map shows all 52,047 miles of routes, plus layers of additional information, like ...
- Amtrak Routes
- Google Bicycle
- Google Traffic
- NOAA Significant Weather
- Flood Warnings
- INCI Fire Data
- USGS Fire Data (active perimeters)
Every season, our routes are affected by forest fires, floods, storms, and freak weather events. Thankfully, our Routes & Mapping Department and IT teams collaborated a few years back to address the need for cyclists to more clearly see how these events may impact their tour.
The resulting interactive route map features a Google map background, overlaid with the Adventure Cycling Route Network, and fortified with additional layers of data from various U.S. government agencies, making it easy to find regions of concern at a glance.
For events such as fires and their ever-changing statuses, this graphical view is a good place to start looking at the situation. Once you’ve zoomed into your area of concern, click on the icons for a pop-up window with more information and links to external sources. Be aware that while flames can impact a route’s ride-worthiness, smoke may also cause road closures and conditions not conducive to riding.
Beyond emergencies and changing weather conditions, there are also layers for Amtrak and Google’s bicycle-friendly routes and traffic information that you may find helpful in planning tours supplemental to our mapped routes.
Have you used the interactive map? What is your favorite feature of it? Please comment below.
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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer ‘Jenn’ Hamelman, Routes & Mapping Assistant Director, and appears once a month, highlighting curious facts, figures, and persons from the Adventure Cycling Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.
Comments
It would be a big lift, but what about linking to the state DOT travel and construction alert pages? We're working in WA through our WSDOT Active Transportation Division to get information for all modes onto these--a work in progress to be sure, but knowing about construction is important for developing detour plans.
Barb Chamberlain
Director, Active Transportation Division, WSDOT
Barb,
Having that information available in a click would be a great feature! We'll have to have our IT department look into it and see what it would take. DOT information and how it's available can very from state to state so it could be more than a simple 50 file or link manipulation.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Jennifer
Smoke from fires miles away can be very dangerous if that can be included that will be a huge help.
Hi John,
Typically links to individual fires include information about wind direction which should help you determine how smoky your intended route could be.
Jenn
Great map compilation! For the Great Divide and Idaho Hot Springs mountain bike routes, maybe add snotel data?
Thanks, Becka! That's something we could look into. However, we've found that while the Snotel data is good for reporting overall conditions in the region, they may not be representative of the road conditions which is what you really need to know for traveling through the area.
Thanks for all the help along the way!!!!
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