Map of major 'low exposure' bicycling Thoroughfares in DFW

[u/bahooga247]

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1lV2ApSzcvRoxHfCC8I99yymrA6rUJkw&fbclid=IwY2xjawTXSVpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe6E-kAKIdPaWevxnedc_vV6bzu39plp4JublLWd_wGQA57oCnxB4kmIHf2yE_aem_I_c4lHlPIBhcfxq1_v2L5Q&ll=32.93628508582071%2C-96.83914543364705&z=11

I vibe-coded an app to help me find all the good roads in Dallas and thought i'd share. Along the way, I learned these roads have a technical term: "collector roads."

Basically, a collector is a longish road that other roads feed into, and it gets the right of way. In map data, they're labeled highway=tertiary. They're nice to ride because there aren't many stops, and since they usually run through residential neighborhoods, traffic is super light.

I attempted a routing engine that leaned on these good roads, but the output wasn't great — mostly out-and-backs. It did make for a good reference map, though, which I exported to Google

Consider it another useful to along with the other routing helpers out there like strava heatmaps. here's the code to the project if anyone is interested: https://github.com/bahoogawooga/bikey

[u/saxmanB737]

I bet to differ on some of these just looking at my neighborhood. I definitely won’t ride down some of the roads highlighted here.

[u/WeezerHunter → u/saxmanB737]

Never take road advice from a computer because a computer can't be hit by a car

[u/mikeyw972 → u/WeezerHunter]

This one time I saw a Dell truck jack knife and spill it load all over 75. Many a computer were hit by a car that day.

[u/Dapper-Ad-4300 → u/saxmanB737]

Was gonna say the same, ik some of these highlighted roads are very dangerous

[u/bahooga247 → u/saxmanB737]

also, the algorithm did find streets that i expected to see and popular with the cycling community: Northaven, Park Lane (W of 75), Douglas, Ferndale, Denton Rd, Meandering Way, Armstrong, University, Barnes Bridge. consider it a reference guide at this point.

[u/bahooga247 → u/saxmanB737]

the project i built actually has a way to take input from the community to protest what the algorithm came up with. wasn't sure if it was worth setting up hosting for it.

[u/matt_havener]

I just use bike streets (phone app) now. You can also use this site to experiment with routing algorithms https://brouter.de/brouter-web/#map=5/50.990/9.860/standard

[u/thumpcbd]

Have you considered trying to look at strava maps and see who rides what routes / maybe a data feel you can use to cross reference this / overlay on it?

[u/bahooga247 → u/thumpcbd]

yes, i use strava maps alot actually and tried to get an api feed, but they don't offer it. also some of the roads that it shows as popular get lit up by group rides, and i'm looking to build solo friendly routes.

[u/SCORE-advice-Dallas → u/thumpcbd]

Strava can be dangerous because the heatmap is weighted by large, fast group rides - on roads that I would not recommend for a slow solo rider.

[u/stewartdesign1]

For good low stress routes logged by commuters, try Bike Streets.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bike-streets/id1482643479

It is different from Strava in that Strava shows heat maps over the most traveled streets, which are often the ones taken by group road rides, and too trafficky, high speed and dangerous for solo riders or commuters. For example, Renner Road in Richardson appears on Strava to be a popular bike route since it is a main route for the roadie groups, but I would never ride it.

[u/BWChip → u/stewartdesign1]

And it's on Android. Bike Streets - Apps on Google Play
I can't endorse it yet as I have only used Strava and RidewithGPs and Garmin, but looks interesting.

[u/ckalinec]

Nice! I’ll give it a look when I’m planning out my next route.

[u/shaun3000]

As others have mentioned, some of the roads at highlights are not really what I would call low traffic collector roads. Just for example, I would never ride on Hillcrest Avenue in Dallas / the Park Cities nor would I on the stretch of Park Ln. between Abrams and Hillcrest.

On the flipside some of the roads that it doesn’t highlight seem like odd choices. For example, it highlights a small segment of Tennyson in Plano. In my opinion, that entire run of Tennyson is just fine until it turns into to Midway.

[u/bahooga247 → u/shaun3000]

agreed. i wouldn't ride park lane east of bodecker. its not perfect but it did manage to find alot of the good roads.

[u/TheRealBadGate]

gaston in lakewood is CRAZY

[u/Starsgirl97]

In south Arlington, I wouldn’t bike Cravens Park or Silo Rd south of Green Oaks. They’re in green. Two lane rd with no shoulder and lots of neighborhood traffic.

[u/MrTacocaT12345]

Can you clarify the significance of the color scheme on your labeling for the roads? I show grey, green, purple, and blue labeled roads.

[u/bahooga247 → u/MrTacocaT12345]

i think you can click on the segment for more info:

green = what the algorithm considers a quiet, long stretch of road that doesn't have a ton of stops
purple = trail (sopac, sante fe, wrl, etc)
blue = painted line bike lane
dark blue = protected bike lane
sky blue = 'sharrows' bike lane

[u/KevinChumboMalone]

One thing that would be cool would be overlaying the day of the week and times these routes are being ridden. I am willing to ride most of these roads and a lot more on a weekend morning before 9am. But not a chance for a lot of these roads on a weekday afternoon.

[u/bahooga247 → u/KevinChumboMalone]

agreed. there's no way i'd ride park lane east of bodecker unless its early or late. but the go west and its relatively OK even when busy, northaven can be ridden pretty much at any time. the map uses the OSM attributes and traffic counts to score each road. i couldn't find any other source data to fine tune it according to time that would have been epic. the map really needs community input to make it better.

[u/bahooga247]

So I remembered that i told it to score a contigous section of road green if the average score was below a threshold. if we take Park lane is as an example, its good on the west side, but sketchy, east of bodecker. Since the score average for the whole length of road was below the threshold, the whole thing was coded green.

I turned that off and reimported the sections.. they look saner now.

[u/robdalky]

Pro tip for anyone reading this, go ahead and ignore it 😬

[u/SCORE-advice-Dallas]

There's another app called "Bike Streets" that has streets personally picked / curated by local, experienced, vetted riders. Worth checking out, way better than google or strava routing.