A reader reached out the other day asking why the PDF version of the official Seattle bike map was no longer on the SDOT website. The kind of ugly interactive web version of the map is there, but not the cleaner (though error-prone) print version.
SDOT says the removal is part of an accessibility overhaul of the city’s website, which is required by April 24 (for governments above 50,000 people) under national ADA rules. “We are in the process of working through our files and remediating them — this means creating a properly tagged PDF document that works for a screen reader,” an SDOT spokesperson wrote. “Some very complex map documents, such as this one, are extremely difficult to make work as a tagged PDF. We have removed this map for now, but if we discover a way to provide this accessibly in the future, we may put it back online.”
I am no expert in ADA rules, but losing access to previously-available resources certainly seems like an unintended consequence of this rule change. On one hand, carving out too many exceptions will lead to governments continuing web practices that are not accessible, so that’s not a good solution. But if the rules require the city to remove documents entirely, that also seems bad. Someone should probably PDR all removed documents so the public at least has them available for reference since the bike map is surely not the only thing that will be removed.
In the meantime, you can find links to various Seattle area bike maps and resources on Seattle Bike Blog’s Bike Maps page. I got in the habit of hosting these documents on our server so that access doesn’t break in case of website changes, so the official city map is available in both JPG and PDF versions (I prefer the JPG version when looking at it on my phone). Of course, these assets do not have accessibility tags beyond my alt text: “The full citywide bike map for 2025.” I have no idea how usable the digital version of the map is for folks using a screen reader, but it apparently complies.
However, if someone is looking for more detailed bike facility data in map form, the Open Streets Map bike facility data is better than SDOT’s official map in my experience. It includes granular info like where bike lanes exist in one direction but not the other and which side of the street they are on (I have a middle school crush on ❤️❤️OSM contributors❤️❤️). CyclOSM does a great job visualizing it. Unlike SDOT’s map, it does not preemptively note bike lanes before they are complete. The official SDOT online map shows protected bike lanes on Eastlake Ave, for example, though anyone who tries to ride them today will be in for a bad time.
OSM bike data also extends across city and county lines, which makes it the most complete one stop shop for regional bike facility data. If you do find an error, then you can fix it yourself by submitting a change to Open Streets Map (the brand new 124th Ave NE bike lanes in Kirkland have even been added already if you zoom in). OSM is an example of old timey online idealism in practice: Everyone pitches in their expertise and experience to build something so grand that no entity could ever create on their own.