filed under: trails as transportation
This resource highlights ways that different communities have mapped their existing and proposed bicycle networks. It shows examples of maps at different scales, while also demonstrating a range of mapping strategies, techniques, and approaches. Facility types represented on the respective maps and legends are each different because they represent a community’s unique context and needs.
by Federal Highway Administration
Connected pedestrian and bicycle networks make walking, wheeling, and bicycling viable transportation choices for everyone. Networks enhance access to jobs, schools, and health care, while also promoting equity, physical activity, and health. Connected networks are comprised of a range of facility types (e.g. bike lanes, separated bike lanes, shared use paths, etc.), linked together to facilitate short trips to and from destinations and long linear connections across a city or region.
A first step to achieving connected networks is to document where bicycling infrastructure currently exists. It is also essential to establish a vision for the future network. This vision is often captured in the form of a map and it’s developed as part of a local planning process that includes opportunities for public participation and input.
A community’s existing and proposed bicycle network maps inform the day-to-day programming and prioritization of projects and help to ensure that all transportation improvements are enhancing the quality of the nonmotorized network and capturing opportunities to make linkages between existing and new facilities.
Published June 2016
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), part of the US Department of Transportation, provides expertise, resources, and information to improve the nation's highway system and its intermodal connections. The Federal-Aid Highway Program provides financial assistance to the States to construct and improve the National Highway System, other roads, bridges, and trails.
Visit Federal Highway Administration
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The 2016-2021 Strategic Agenda for Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation builds on 25 years of progress toward increasing walking and biking safety and activity throughout the United States. The 1994 National Bicycling and Walking Study: Transportation Choices for Changing America set the stage for advancing safe, accessible, comfortable, and well-used pedestrian and bicycle transportation networks, with a focus on increasing trips and reducing injuries and fatalities.
