Matt Kladney can tell you how to get from Point A to Point B in San Francisco by bike, no problem. (Asking him how to navigate a car the same way is a disaster, however.) The longtime city cyclist and UCSF medical student had such a clear and simple mental picture of S.F.'s bike routes that one day he sat down to translate the map in his head to a map you can view online.
The result is a user-friendly, color-coded bike map that resembles the simplicity and ease-of-use of the London Tube map. Unlike the map produced by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which has the grade and name of every city street, four different types of bike lane, and contour lines for every hill and slight elevation change, Kladney's map lets cyclists quickly and easily find the shortest route through town.
Kladney hopes his map, lauded by "See-Through Maps," a cartography symposium held earlier this month at UC Berkeley, will encourage the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency to both upgrade bicycle infrastructure and include bike routes as part of official city transit. He also hopes the map will encourage more people to saddle up and ride city streets.