App: A bike map and guide for Chicagoland

Consider this: You like to use the Chicago Bike Map but you don't always carry it with you. You want to be reminded of where the bike lanes and trail access points are. But you do carry your smartphone with you, all the time.

In April 2012 I launched my first-ever app, the Chicago Bike Guide. It works similarly to the "Chicago Bike Map" (the City's printed one) in that it shows the presence of on-street bike lanes, multi-use trails, and train stations. It works like Google Maps, though, where you can pinch and zoom to interact with the map.

Divvy, train stations, directions, The Chainlink, Twitter, points of interest, it's all right here.

Available for Android and iOS.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 12, 2013 at 3:49pm

Blame it on Ning!

I was hoping with the revamp of the whole site and everything that The Chainlink could dump Ning! and find some other system and hosting. Maybe that isn't possible with the contract with the devil that was signed with them when they set things up. It could be that we are stuck with them for life.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Schwab on April 12, 2013 at 4:52pm

311 suggestion: debris pickup and street sweeper needed for glass and other very small debris.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on April 13, 2013 at 9:24am

This is definitely in the pipeline. When I first started looking into incorporating a 311 submission system back in December or January, I ran into some problems. There was weak documentation but I know the people behind it at the City so hopefully I can have better success on the second run.

Mike Schwab said:

311 suggestion: debris pickup and street sweeper needed for glass and other very small debris.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on April 15, 2013 at 7:02am

This would be great. It seems like there would be/should be an easy way for people to submit such reports, (glass or debris in a street) but I didn't see it at the newly revamped 311 reporting site.

Steven Vance said:

This is definitely in the pipeline. When I first started looking into incorporating a 311 submission system back in December or January, I ran into some problems. There was weak documentation but I know the people behind it at the City so hopefully I can have better success on the second run.

Mike Schwab said:

311 suggestion: debris pickup and street sweeper needed for glass and other very small debris.

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on April 15, 2013 at 7:07am

I worked with Ning just enough to realize that it is the worst possible platform for doing a forum. I certainly could have missed something, but I sure don't recall noticing any kind of "deal with the devil" when I was learning about the platform. The closest thing (that I know of - and its been a while) is that the data isn't easily ported to another less crappy platform (less crappy would be any other platform of course.) But I seem to recall that even at the time - a couple years ago - there were ways to get it done.

James BlackHeron said:

Blame it on Ning!

I was hoping with the revamp of the whole site and everything that The Chainlink could dump Ning! and find some other system and hosting. Maybe that isn't possible with the contract with the devil that was signed with them when they set things up. It could be that we are stuck with them for life.

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on April 15, 2013 at 7:11am

I find it pretty easy to submit reports via that website, but for those looking for another – mobile-oriented – solution, try Chicago Works, SeeClickFix, and Fix 311.

BTW, everyone, version 0.7 will drop in a few days (it's waiting for review right now). It brings several improvements to the routing function (showing distance, estimated travel duration, and more usable results), reduced file size, and fixed CTA stations. There was also an issue with the screenshots being shown in the app store (they showed an outdated version).

Here are the 10 best new features of version 0.6 and the upcoming version 0.7.

Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:

This would be great. It seems like there would be/should be an easy way for people to submit such reports, (glass or debris in a street) but I didn't see it at the newly revamped 311 reporting site.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 15, 2013 at 7:13am

Even if it meant starting from scratch, losing everything, and everyone needing to sign back up again with a new system it would be worth it IMHO. But that is just my opinion. Ning really sucks.

Something free and open-source like Simple Machines would be awesome as long as enough ad revenues could be harvested from the site to pay for hosting and other costs what more would people really need?

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on April 15, 2013 at 7:15am

A calendar.

Please let this be the end of Ning versus Everything in this thread.

James BlackHeron said:

Even if it meant starting from scratch, losing everything, and everyone needing to sign back up again with a new system it would be worth it IMHO. But that is just my opinion. Ning really sucks.

Something free and open-source like Simple Machines would be awesome as long as enough ad revenues could be harvested from the site to pay for hosting and other costs what more would people really need?

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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on April 17, 2013 at 5:14am

The new icon is beautiful. Nice work! I can't seem to get the update to work, but I think that is because my phone lacks room for it.

I have no one to blame but myself, but I'm still mad at the dude at the Verizon store for not even mentioning the option of a phone with more storage capacity.

(a l m o s t got through this entire post without mentioning how crappy Ning is!)

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Permalink Reply by Steven Vance on April 17, 2013 at 5:20am

The next update, hopefully coming this week, has a slightly reduced file size (by 17 MB). You can check to see what other apps are taking up a lot of space by going to Settings>General>Usage. Photo and Twitter apps take up a lot of space. Music and Photos also take up a lot of space, and these can by synced in and out of your iOS device easily.

Thank you for the icon compliment.

Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:

The new icon is beautiful. Nice work! I can't seem to get the update to work, but I think that is because my phone lacks room for it.

I have no one to blame but myself, but I'm still mad at the dude at the Verizon store for not even mentioning the option of a phone with more storage capacity.