1) What do 'most direct route', 'safe route', and 'safest route', actually mean?

2) What does the 'caution' sign mean?

3) Does Ride the City direct cyclists to go the wrong way on one-way streets?

4) Ride the City doesn't recognize my address. Why not, and what can I do about it?

5) I know a better/safer/faster route than the one(s) Ride the City suggested. How can I tell you about it?

6) What is the difference between a greenway and a bike lane?

7) Why do the routes that Ride the City generates involve so many steps?

8) Can I search for bike shops along my route?

9) Can Ride the City tell me the best bike route in New Jersey, Westchester, or on Long Island?

10) How do I email a results page to one of my friends?

11) The route appears on screen, but not when I print. What's the deal?

12) I don't live in New York City; does something like Ride the City exist in my town?

13) Where did Ride the City get the data on streets, bike lanes, and greenways?

14) Did you get the idea to create Ride the City from Google Maps 'Bike There'?

15) What kind of technology did you use to build Ride the City?

16) Is there a mobile version of Ride the City? Can I get directions via text messages?

17) What updates do you have planned for Ride the City in the future?

1) What do 'most direct route', 'safe route', and 'safest route', actually mean?

Most routing applications choose the best route based on the distance or time required from start to finish. Ride the City does the same thing, except we factor in street segments with bike facilities.

RTC considers streets with bike lanes to be shorter than they actually are. This is slightly exaggerated on the 'safe route' and more exaggerated on the 'safest route.' The result is that the 'safest route' will direct you out of your way to the nearest greenway, bike lane, or street segment that users have suggested to us.

The 'most direct route' is exactly that -- the shortest route we can find. Please use special caution when riding the most direct route as it makes no effort to use bike lanes or greenways -- and makes no effort to steer you clear of dangerous streets like Queens Boulevard.

2) What does the 'caution' sign mean?

These are street segments that we (or other cyclists) feel warrant extra caution when riding. Check out Transportation Alternatives' excellent CrashStat website for a sobering look at the most dangerous streets and intersections in the City.

3) Does Ride the City direct cyclists to go the wrong way on one-way streets?

No, it doesn't. If you notice an error, please let us know via the feedback form.

4) Ride the City doesn't recognize my address. Why not, and what can I do about it?

First, make sure you enter your borough along with your street address. Sometimes we can guess the borough from the context, but not every time. If your trouble persists, please let us know via the feedback form.

5) I know a better/safer/faster route than the one(s) Ride the City suggested. How can I tell you about it?

Please use the feedback form. We appreciate and rely on your input.

6) What is the difference between a greenway and a bike lane?

Any bike path over a bridge is a greenway. Additionally, any off-street bike path (like the Hudson River or East River bike paths) or on-street bike lane that is physically separated from vehicular traffic (like the 9th Avenue protected bike lane) is a greenway. Any on-street painted route that is not physically separated from vehicular traffic is a bike lane. According to these definitions, bike routes in Central and Prospect Parks are designated as bike lanes because they are on-street. However, when vehicular traffic is not allowed on off-hours and weekends, these routes operate more like greenways.

7) Why do the routes that Ride the City generates involve so many steps?

Ride the City generates routes with a larger-than-expected number of steps for a few reasons:

1. Safer RTC routes tend to be longer routes as the optimizer tries to steer riders toward greenways, bike lanes and other quiet streets. Those extra blocks can mean a few extra steps.

2. RTC generates an additional step each time a bike lane begins or ends on a street. For example, if a route includes a street that has no bike lane for 4 blocks, a bike lane for 12 blocks, and then no bike lane for 2 blocks, RTC shows three steps.

3. RTC also generates steps when the name of a street changes. Sometimes this can be less-than-useful even when it's correct. For example, a route on W 10th Street that crosses Fifth Avenue will add a step because the street's name changes to E 10th Street.

4. Incorrect street data can also lead to extraneous steps. Our initial data set was inconsistent in its use of abbreviations and street numbers so a route might have three steps on '5 Ave', '5 Av', and '5th Ave' that all describe the same street. Please let us know when you notice this and we'll fix it.

8) Can I search for bike shops along my route?

Yes, you can! On the results page, zoom in on the map and look for the sprocket icons. These denote nearby bike shops. Click on the icon to get the name, address, phone number, and hours for each shop.

9) Can Ride the City tell me the best bike route in New Jersey, Westchester, or on Long Island?

No. Ride the City only covers the five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island (via the Staten Island Ferry).

10) How do I email a results page to one of my friends?

Right click on 'link to this route' under the word 'print.' Then copy the address into an email.

11) The route appears on screen, but not when I print. What's the deal?

We're working on improving the printing function. Stay tuned!

12) I don't live in New York City; does something like Ride the City exist in my town?

Yes, if you live in Portland, Oregon or Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There's a great website called byCycle.org that provides a bike routing service in those cities. You can also check out Google Maps 'Bike There' for other similar initiatives in other cities. Interested in bringing Ride the City to your town? Let's talk. Please contact us at info [at] ridethecity [dot] com.

13) Where did Ride the City get the data on streets, bike lanes, and greenways?

Every time you search Ride the City, we look through more than 125,000 records in a database. Most of that data comes from the City's LION GIS data. The City's LION file does not contain bicycle facility data, so we made a Freedom of Information Act request to the NYC Department of Transportation and NYC Department of City Planning. That got us a little closer, but we still had to put in dozens of hours of data cleanup to get everything working more-or-less correctly.

14) Did you get the idea to create Ride the City from Google Maps 'Bike There'?

No. We starting talking about doing this in 2005 and started work on it in the fall of 2007. We fully support the idea of Google adding bike directions to its maps, even if it puts our website out of business!

15) What kind of technology did you use to build Ride the City?

Ride the City was built almost exclusively from open source software and tools. Here are a few technologies worth highlighting:

• A Postgresql database with the PostGIS extension.
• pgRouting components for route optimization: There would be no Ride the City without it!
• OpenLayers mapping library for drawing markers, vector lines, and popups.
• Google Maps API as a base map in OpenLayers. We also use Google's geocoding service.
• uDig Desktop GIS: uDig connects directly to our remote PostGIS database. A few quirks, but total genius overall. It was a lifesaver in terms of data cleanup since I could run it on my MacBook.

The whole shebang runs on a linux server hosted by Micro Resources. Special thanks to Gary Sherman for his expertise and support on getting all these things to work together.

The blog/faq are Drupal. All the custom development was done in PHP and javascript.

16) Is there a mobile version of Ride the City? Can I get directions via text messages?

Not yet, but we plan to include it in a future release of RTC.

17) What updates do you have planned for Ride the City in the future?

There are a number of things we wanted to incorporate in the beta release of the site but weren't able to. In the future, we plan to:

• Make the site available in languages other than English.
• Improve the printing functionality.
• Clean up the data further and incorporate users' feedback in recommending even better routes.
• Add bike parking facilities to the map near a trip's starting/ending points.
• Add support for mobile devices.
• Make the site faster.