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[As of 1994]
METRO-PED
Map of Existing and Proposed Bikeways and Footpaths
in the Metro Halifax and Dartmouth Area
including
Bedford, Sackville, Cole Harbour, McNabs Island,
Eastern Passage, and Lawrencetown Beach

Compiled and designed by Gene Keyes

This is a re-issue, in jpegs, of an award-winning bikeway map pamphlet for Halifax and vicinity, which I produced in 1994 with a grant from the Nova Scotia Department of Health's Community Health Promotion Fund, and sponsorship by the Clean Nova Scotia Foundation. Shortly afterward, the areas covered here were merged into a single Halifax Regional Municipality. At the time, it was generally a bicycle-un-friendly city; one could not even ride a bike across the MacDonald bridge, but had to dismount and walk. (See photo at end, online version.) Since then, a special bike lane was built onto the bridge; and other bikeways and paths have been developed. Meanwhile, in 2003 I "retired", and moved from Halifax to the small Nova Scotia town of Berwick.

The purpose of this map was to scrounge up as many bits and pieces and hints of actual bikeways (and walking paths) as I could find, and also to compile ideas and proposals for more of them. In addition, the map had a pair of graphical innovations: 1) As mentioned below, it shows the entire kilometer distance across the length and width of each map (plus miles). 2) Not mentioned, is that this bikeway map also ties into my "Coherent World Map System", based on the octahedral projection of B.J.S. Cahill (1866-1944), whose design bears better resemblance to a globe than any other (including Buckminster Fuller's). While the base map was provided by the NS Geomatics Centre in Amherst, I added the grid, the bikeway data, other details, and oriented it as if it were a cut-out from a total world map: my adaptation of Cahill's. That is why the North arrow tilts left, which is how the Maritimes' meridians would appear in this global profile. (For more details, go here.)

Remember that this map was issued in 1994, and that many of its contacts and addresses are out of date, including mine. As of 2010, my e-mail is gene.keyes--at--gmail--dot--com
Note: For the Web version, I have scaled up the map to 1/20,000 (on my 19" monitor; yours may be different). The original was printed on 8" x 10.5" pages, unfortunately reducing the scale to 1/26.000. However, for those who wish to make hard copies, I have provided this printer-friendly zip-file of all the pages at their smaller original size.

PS: I also designed the glyph below, to show a casual cyclist sitting up, not hunched over the handlebars for racing. See also notes at end about an unfinished bikway-sign project.


Contents  

• Cover  
• Index map and legend [back cover]
     

Text pages:
• Introduction
  
• Map Index of existing bikeways and footpaths (2 p.)

• Map Index of proposed bikeways and footpaths (2 p.)
Map pages:

• A Forest Hills Bikeway

• B   • C   • D   • E (outer reaches)

• 1-2      Lower Sackville
• 3-4      Port Wallace, etc.
• 5-6      Cole Harbour, etc.
• 7-8      Bedford
• 9-10    Dartmouth
• 11-12  Eastern Passage, etc.
• 13-14  Birch Cove, etc.
• 15-16  Halifax
• 17-18  McNabs Island, etc.
• 19-20  Spryfield, etc.



Postscript 2010-06: As a follow-on to this map, I had received a small grant from the Shell Environmental Fund in 1996 to do a pilot project of bikeway signage, in the Forest Hills area, and the Linear Parkway. My design had a glyph similar to that on the map booklet's cover, and specified point-to-point distances, as measured by myself.

Aluminum signs were produced at a sign-shop, but the shop handed over the signs unfinished because they had underestimated the cost. Installation of completed signs was also never done, partly due to changes of personnel as the new Halifax Regional Municipality came into being, and partly due to my later employment elsewhere. Those signs may still be warehoused at Public Works on 450 Cowie Hill Road, in case anyone can salvage the project.

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