“I mainly use MapQuest,” says Kyle McEwen, a bike mechanic at Ski Market, as he tunes up a white mountain bike on a Thursday afternoon. McEwan commutes to Boston from Dorchester daily. Nearby, Matt Evans, a sales associate who rides in from South Boston, says he primarily uses the drag-route function on Google Maps. When asked what they look for in an ideal online bike map, both quickly agreed that they’d like a map that includes updated information about road construction. “We get so many people in here with damages due to construction,” says Evans, noting bike-shop locations would also be helpful. “You could pop in to fix a flat tire or whatever.”
"My biggest concern is just watching out for crazy Boston drivers, which I am sad to say no amount of bike-map-having will solve," says Shane Jordan, who runs BostonBiker.org, a hub for the Boston biking community, and bikes daily between Dorchester and the Financial District. Still, Jordan utilizes online bike maps and says his dream map would include "real-time traffic updates, bike-path inclusion, live weather reports, mileage calculators," which aren't far off from what's currently available.
And he's trying to think positively. "More people are on the bike, and seeing the bike as a source of transportation instead of just something to do for fun. I really think 2008 to 2010 will be the years of the bike."
Caitlin E. Curran always knows where she’s going. She can be reached at ccurran@phx.com.
Related:
‘Bring us your worst . . . ’, Wise asses, All together now, More 
- ‘Bring us your worst . . . ’
Mike brought his creation to a climax with high-pitched keening — part orgasm, part death knell — before swooning onto the stage.
- Wise asses
With all the star power being trotted out in this summer’s would-be blockbuster comedies, how likely was it that the best would be Superbad ?
- All together now
Ask us in a few months, and we’ll tell you how much we love a good bar crawl: the freedom to flit from conversation to conversation, the lists of drinks to choose from, the changes of scenery to keep our ADD at bay.
- Hit us with your best shot
Shots are like candy bars: you’re worked up and craving one by the end of a stressful day, but once you’ve downed 12 in a row, you begin to feel a bit queasy.
- Flat Breads Café
Moderately health-conscious Boston College students, staff, and faculty know Flat Breads Café is the perfect place for cheap and nutritious wraps (and even a bit of entertainment, as you watch your delicacy get made). Now you know too.
- Zoe’s Gourmet Chinese Cuisine (Brookline)
There were extreme reactions to the news that Zoe’s, which has another location in Somerville, was taking over Shalom Beijing (formerly Shalom Hunan).
- New church sex abuse film rings familiar
In Amy Berg’s haunting new documentary, Deliver Us From Evil , the first-time director gets a convicted pedophile to talk in disturbing detail about the molestation acts he committed during his 22-year span as a priest in the Catholic Church. Watch the trailer for Deliver Us from Evil (QuickTime)
- Old South Tomolives
If you’re one of those people who really just orders a Bloody Mary for the olives, you might want to reconsider.
- 9 Tastes
If the crowd of eager diners spilling into every open crevice of 9 Tastes’s foyer was any indication of a promising meal, we had come to the right place.
- Columbus Café
This space used to house the Claremont Café, which outgrew its origins as a gourmet cafeteria to become a serious Mediterranean bistro with Peruvian menu incursions.
- Pat Orlando’s
Although its namesake founder no longer runs the place, Pat Orlando’s Restaurant has kept up the standards that earned it a loyal local following.
- Less
Topics:
Lifestyle Features
, Culture and Lifestyle, Travel and Tourism, Bicycling, More
, Culture and Lifestyle, Travel and Tourism, Bicycling, Outdoor Recreation, Kelly Wallace, Gordon Riker, Nicole Freedman, Shane Jordan, Less
