The Chicagoist will be launching later but in the meantime please enjoy our archives.

Updated Chicago Bike Guide Revealed

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 16, 2013 2:20PM

2013_4_16_bikeguide.jpg

It was only last July when transportation planner Steven Vance debuted his offline bike map for iPhone and he's been tweaking and improving it since.

Last Friday, Vance debuted an upgraded version of the map, now called the Chicago Bike Guide, that provides better routing options (including more accurate distances and estimated travel times), improved GPS accessibility, retina display capability, Flickr photos of points near any position on the map, and even restaurant recommendations from Vance if you need to refuel along your ride.

The most unique update, for us, is the links to forum discussion threads and events from The Chainlink, posts from Streetsblog Chicago and blog updates from attorney Jim Freeman, who specializes in representing bicyclists, transit riders and pedestrians who suffer injuries. Vance lists his 10 favorite updates to the guide here. Unfortunately, there isn't a version of the new guide for Android users. For iOs users, it's an improvement over an already solid app and worth the $1.99 to download. (Users who bought the guide previously may update for free.)