Interactive Google Map of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

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Interactive Google Map of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail

The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail is a proposed development in Massachusetts that will convert a former railroad bed into a 25 mile, multi-purpose trail stretching from Chelmsford to Framingham, passing through the towns of Westford, Carlisle, Acton, Concord, and Sudbury too . The trail is logistically broken out into three phases, each to be developed sequentially as fund-raising and litigation with abutters move along in parallel.

The BFRT website is chock full of useful information for to help support the building of the Rail Trail. The map which diagrams the route and its 3 phases is rather vague unfortunately. I decided to diagram the bicycle path's proposed route using Google Maps instead, which allows for precise plotting, zooming, and both map and satellite views.

View Larger Map

I would love to see the whole network of rail trails in Massachusetts developed to encourage bicycling for sport and commuting since the roads are so very hazardous here. For starters, a connector trail to join the BFRT with the Assabet River Rail Trail would extend the trail network to Marlborough, Hudson, Maynard, and Stow. It would be a dream to also connect it to the Minuteman Bikeway that runs from Bedford to Cambridge and provides access to the Alewife subway station and Boston.

I encourage everyone to support the BFRT and Rail Trails throughout the country and beyond.

posted on 25 October, 2007 at 12:32 PM.
Rants, Outdoors, New England, Bicycling | Comments (7)

Comments

Over at the ARRT web site (http://www.arrtinc.org/google_map5.asp), there are detailed Google maps of 26 of the Mass rail trails.

All managed and dynamically generated using Coldfusion of course:)

comment by Tom K, posted at 10/31/07 2:47 PM

Yep, using the Google API. The BFRT board just asked me to do the same thing for them... make an interactive map for their website with custom photos on place markers.... They also asked for a Wiki and Forum, so I'll try to persuade them to host it on a CF site so I can use Ray's stuff.

comment by Steven Erat, posted at 10/31/07 3:39 PM

Tom, how did you generate the array of data points for the "polyline" line on the ARRT map? Did you manually select the points and copy the lat/long, or did you have a means of automating it? Thanks.

comment by Steven Erat, posted at 10/31/07 3:44 PM

I wrote my own Google Maps management portal in CF. It lets me create/edit a map by point and clicking a route on a blank Google map screen. The lat/lon points are saved to a SQL database at the ISP. Then the maps can be dynamically generated from a CF site or statically 'published' to an ASP site. The portal is a requirement with the map count at 23 and the total data points at 10,000+.

comment by Tom K, posted at 11/1/07 1:26 PM

Thank you, Steven, for providing this map. I live in Concord and was really happy to find the map. For the first time I really can see where the proposed trail will go, thanks to the zoom and hybrid features of Google Maps. (Also, the rest of your website is interesting too.) Thanks also to Tom K for posting the link to the maps of the other rail trails.

comment by Lydia, posted at 11/7/07 2:07 PM

so, you actually designed the bicycles path, nice work!
thanks for sharing this article,

comment by uttoransen, posted at 11/7/07 2:47 PM

I'm collaborating with some fellow techies at BFRT.org to update that website with its own interactive map with photos, along with a blog and wiki among other things. Look for those changes over the winter.

By the way, would that be Lydia formerly of Brandeis Bioinformatics?

comment by Steven Erat, posted at 11/7/07 3:12 PM

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I live west of Boston and work as a Software Engineer with ColdFusion and Flex, specializing in Linux. Recently I graduated in Professional Digital Photography from CDIA.