Shortcuts added to routes

I use Route B: the Midtowner often to get from my office in the Crossroads to the Broadway Cafe in Westport. I would usually ride over to Main Street at 20th to pick up “B” and take it the rest of the way, and was perfectly content with that route.

Then Kevin Klinkenberg suggested I ride around the Penn Valley Park to Summit and then to my office. Turns out, it was a great suggestion, carving several minutes off the trip.

But it also presented a dilemma: how to add these segments to the overall map without it becoming too confusing and complex? The answer: short-cuts.

These routes are handy segments that are great for e-biking and may prove useful for some riders. But they don’t really justify a formal route of their own.

We’ve added two short-cuts to the system map to start. One is the Penn Valley cut, and the other is a reader-suggested route that connects KU Med and Route A to Westport and Route B along 41st Street. And we will add more as they are identified.

The short-cuts are on their own map layer, so they can be hidden to keep the overall map less cluttered. Like the major routes, the short-cuts can be downloaded to RidewithGPS for detailed directions on a smartphone.