Division of Data

Welcome to the CDOT Bicycle Program's "Division of Data" page.

The CDOT Bicycle Program generates, collects, and manipulates a lot of data. We use these data for planning and development. On this page, we're going to share a little bit of it with you.

Also on this page we'll post interesting things that have to do with biking and technology. Most of this data is compiled elsewhere on City servers for public consumption, but this page shows what's useful to the Bicycle Program and gathers it all in one place.

• KML feeds
• Data provided: All installed bike racks in Chicago
• We are willing to work with interested parties who have creative ideas on repackaging these data in unique presentations. Please contact Steven Vance. A bike rack requester's contact information is never shared.
• Currently, EveryBlock Chicago subscribes to our bike rack installation feed to incorporate new bike rack installations into neighborhood news pages.
• Access our KML files and learn what KML files are.
• GIS
  • Data provided: GIS layer showing all installed bike lanes and marked-shared lanes.
  • Data maintained by the Chicago Department of Innovation and Technology's GIS division; data from 2006.
  • Download ZIP file
• GPS
  • Date provided: None
  • Two websites allow users to upload (import), or share (export) GPS-device compatible files (most common is GPX). We don't have any routes or data to share in this regard at this time, but something may come up.
    • Bikely.com
    • MapMyRide.com
• Public Transit information
  • Data provided: Detailed lists of Metra and CTA stations
  • Metra stations in Chicago - geocoded with latitude and longitude coordinates; street addresses are missing or guessed using reverse geocoding; mostly compiled manually; may be incomplete if any stations were added in 2007 or later - Used on our Bike Parking website
  • CTA stations in Chicago - geocoded with latitude and longitude coordinates; street addresses are the ones CTA uses; geographic coordinates represent the street addresses, and not the train platform or station entrance/fare gates - Used on our Bike Parking website
• Community Information
  • Data provided: Detailed list of Ward and Alderman information, list of Community Areas
  • Wards (Microsoft Excel, CSV) - Find Alderman names, contact information, local office addresses, emails and website addresses where available; geocoded with latitude and longitude coordinates. City Council current as of August 28th, 2008. There are 50 wards.
  • Community Areas (Microsoft Excel, CSV) - Community areas are non-political fixed districts in Chicago, devised by social researchers at the University of Chicago in the 1950s. They are primarily used for statistical and demographical comparisons over time. There are 77 community areas.