Bike Trails of Madison Wisconsin

Living in Madison has opened my door to a wide variety of outdoor activities that I haven't had access to while living in other cities like Eau Claire. I purchased a bicycle recently to travel around the city in a more Eco-friendly way. This is beneficial to me since it seems like every street in Madison is under construction right now and traffic is terrible! The biking culture in Madison is excellent, trails intersect and weave between downtown, west side, east side and even go to the belt line south of the city. Since Madison is such a bike friendly city I thought it would be a fun idea to dive into a different kind of road map. This map shows the diverse and well crafted bike trails throughout Madison Wisconsin.

This map was created using data supplied from Dane County, Open Street Map, and bicycle data from UW-Madison. I used the TIGER files from Dane County to show the belt line and highways. This data was used to gather a sense of scale and show how  you can get pretty much anywhere riding a bike in Madison. The Open Street Map data was used as a base layer but made transparent so you can see the bike trails and intersecting roads.

Most of the road data was omitted to focus more on the bike paths themselves. I also included the B-Cycle rental bike stations that are scattered throughout the city. These B-Cycle stations are cheap and easy to use for just a couple dollars a day and you can rent a bike cheaply and reliably in Madison. Bike Facilities are also found along major bike trails in case of accidents such as flat tires or a broken chain. This is one of the many reasons why Madison is such a bike friendly city.

This Bike map of Madison gives a large scale presentation of the bike trails in the city. The  city has quite a few trails that go from east side to the west side all the way to the belt line. Many people in Madison use these bike trails everyday to commute to work, get groceries or just for fun. The biking community in Wisconsin is on par with some European cities such as Amsterdam and Copenhagen. I for one, am very excited to start biking along this beautiful city to take in as much of the trails as I can and to skip traffic on my way to work.