How is your city using maps?

There are many ways that municipalities use maps. I’ve worked on several projects with municipalities this year:

• designing and updating cycling maps
• editing existing maps to help cities who designed the initial maps internally but don’t have resources to update
• designing new municipal tourism maps
• creating wayfinding maps
• creating maps for municipal reports and public consultations

City and cycling maps

Mississauga’s 2021 cycling map

I first worked with the City of Mississauga in 2017 to design a new folding city cycling map and have updated it a few times since then. The map is available in print, is downloadable from their website, and is also available in the Avenza Maps app.

Guelph’s 2021 cycling map

In 2019 I redesigned Guelph’s cycling map to reflect the many changes since it was last updated. There was a new infrastructure category and a lot more trails and facilities. We updated it this year, and it’s available for download on their site and in the Avenza Maps app.

Burlington’s 2021 cycling map

I worked with the City of Burlington to update their bike map. They sent me their brochure and base map, and I updated the cycling network, added a detail map for downtown and new rural routes, and redesigned some brochure panels. The map is available in print.

Vaughan’s new tourism map

This year I worked with the City of Vaughan on a new tourism map for their visitor guide. It’s not available online yet, but will be soon. I worked with Lisa Lawless, a Guelph graphic designer, who created some wonderful landmark symbols the city can use in their maps and guides.

Wayfinding maps

I’m working on several projects with the City of Brampton this year:

• updating wayfinding maps that will appear on 10 displays throughout the city; their in-house team didn’t have the resources to work on those so they contacted me
• designing new wayfinding maps for several Grand River access points in Brantford
• editing points of interest for their tourism map, and creating a zoomed-in map of the downtown area

They work with a graphic designer who has created a lovely tourist map, but needed assistance in plotting exact coordinates of some points of interest. I used GIS software to geocode addresses, and will create a new downtown map in the same style. I’ll turn the files back over to the graphic designer to add the finishing illustrative touches.

If you already have city cycling or tourism maps, you can use those maps for your wayfinding signs.  Burlington has wayfinding signs throughout the city with their cycling map on it. The current one is from 2016, and will soon be replaced by the 2021 map I updated this year.

Maps for reports

If you’ve ever read reports that municipalities prepare for public consultation and planning, you’ll see a LOT of maps in them.

Earlier this year I worked with ClimateActionWR on maps for a proposal for active transportation hubs throughout Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge. The report includes maps created by the Region’s GIS department, and ClimateActionWR commissioned me to create asset maps for the target neighbourhoods.

You can read more about this project on my blog.

Contact Me

Are you planning updates to your maps, or considering new maps to help people navigate your city?

Contact me for a free, no-obligation consultation to talk about your map projects. When you don’t have the tools or the time, I can help.

Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

To make sure you don’t miss the next blog post, sign up to our newsletter to receive news and updates