Bike maps covering the Philadelphia area
Philadelphia is both a city and a county. To the South is Delaware county and to the West and North of Delaware County is Chester county. To the North and West is Montgomery County, and North of that is Bucks County. To the East is New Jersey. Any ride of more than a few miles is likely to take you out of Philadelphia into one or more of the other counties. There are few sources that cover the whole region in sufficient detail for the bicyclist.
Bike routes in Center City. Also available from local bike shops. Useful for finding Center City landmarks, like the Art Museum.
Philadelphia bike map (large pdf). Shows roads with bike lanes and suggested routes. I find this map difficult to inspect. It shows every road but minor ones are not named. It is good for finding safe routes across the city providing you stay within Philadelphia county boundaries.
Greater Philadelphia regional bike map. This map, which was released in April 2003, shows recommended roads for cycling over a wide region around Philly. Each of 32 segments can be downloaded and printed out, which makes it more useful than most of the other maps listed on this page. It is one of very few maps that shows both roads and bike trails so it is excellent for planning traffic-free or low-traffic routes. The paper version is available from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and several local bike shops.
Pennsylvania rail-trail
map. Rails-to-trails for the whole state, including colored squiggly
lines for SE PA and the Philly region.
Bike maps of Delaware.
Free maps by mail and a
macabre
use of Google maps.
Bike map of New Jersey.
A labor of love made by an amateur mapmaker and ardent bicyclist. Very
detailed and comprehensive map of the whole of New Jersey and abutting portions
of Pennsylvania. Splits the state into ~20 sq mile blocks. All roads are named and rated
for bike friendliness. Dirt roads, bike paths, view points, and parking
places are shown. Be sure to check the key to understand what each road
color means.
Other
New Jersey Bike maps provided by NJDOT. Includes addresses to
obtain paper copies of county-level maps.
Bike map of Somerset
County, NJ.
Franklin maps of Philadelphia and the five surrounding counties. Not specifically for cyclists but detailed, searchable, and easily printed (one section at a time). Colorful.
Pennsylvania bicycle touring corridors. This is a series of maps provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDot) for trans-Pennsylvania bike routes. Routes E, L, and S are close to Philadelphia. These are not the most scenic or quietest roads in the region, but they do provide routes that go straight North or West from Philadelphia.
ADC map books. These are maps on a scale of about 2.5" to the mile that include all roads. With very few exceptions, the thin, uncolored roads in these books are good for riding. The map book's size (about 16 x 12") makes them inconvenient to carry. There are also map sheets that cover the same ground on a smaller scale (about 1" to the mile). The maps are fairly expensive because each county is covered separately. The best deal is the "Philadelphia, PA Greater Metro Street Map Book" at $39.95 or less, (on Amazon) which is the Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery and Bucks County map books bound together. Note that none of the ADC map books cover New Jersey.
Delorme TOPO USA and StreetAtlas USA. These are programs for the PC covering the whole of the USA, but they provide good coverage of the Delaware Valley. TOPO USA gives route profiles and 3-D views as well as the standard 2-D shaded relief maps. Street Atlas provides hotel, food, and entertainment information. I find the interface of both programs to be clunky. I switched to Garmin Mapsource TOPO and City Select when I bought a GPS in 2003.