Bicycle Route Maps Available at Ball State University Libraries

National Bike Month in May: Bike Maps Available in the University Libraries

Ball State University became a part of the national celebration of National Bike Month in May, and employees were encouraged to participate in Bike-to-Work Day on May 16. The University even created a bike rack location map with trails marked. This map is available at http://bsu.edu/workingwell/media/pdf/bike-rack-map.pdf

The Geospatial Resources & Map Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library has a large collection of bike trail maps for those bicyclists motivated to use their bikes even more this summer. The GRMC has dozens of trail maps available that were published by Bikecentennial, the former name of the Adventure Cycling Association. The Adventure Cycling Association is an organization promoting long-distance bicycle tours across America, and many of these maps provide information about the condition and elevation of the trails and even edible plants along the trail. These maps also show the locations of bike shops, grocery stores, hotels, and post offices, and provide statistics about weather conditions.

The Collection includes Bikecentennial maps of sections of the Trans-America Bicycle Trail, the Great River Bicycle Trail, bike routes from Iowa to Maine, routes from Maine to Virginia, routes from Virginia to Florida, and many other trails. Bicycle trails in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin are all available on maps in the GRMC.

The GRMC also has a copy of the Official Bicycle Map of Illinois. Individual county bike maps of numerous counties in Michigan and special trail maps of Ohio are also available for circulation.
The Collection of bicycle trail maps is available in the ready-reference area of the GRMC, but these maps are not yet cataloged so maps cannot be located using the CardCat system. Stop by the GRMC, and staff can find the bicycle trail maps needed for planning treks across the country.