Here’s a great NYC open data story from Streetsblog via Ben Fried.

“Betsy Emmons has mapped the history of New York City’s bike network using the platform MapStory. Watch the city’s greenways, bike lanes, and bridge paths expand over 120 years.”

“You can see the first designated bike routes — promenade-style parkways designed by Olmsted and Vaux in the pre-automotive era — crop up on Ocean Parkway and Eastern Parkway. Bike access via bridges and ferries is visible early on — these are labeled “Class L” in the data, says Emmons, which means they were designated as bike routes but did not necessarily include dedicated space for cycling.”

“The NYC map was especially easy, she said, because DOT publicly posts both the geographic data and the meta-data about time of implementation. Very few other cities have easily accessible time data, she said.”