[Tagging] Differences in cycleways

[M∡rtin Koppenhoefer]

2011/1/5 Robert Elsenaar <robert at elsenaar.info>:
> Looking on tags for cycleways I find 3 different types:
> highway=cycleway: obvious these are free ways like here
> cycleway=track


Personally I consider cycleway=track a preliminary state before a
proper highway=cycleway is drawn. It is intended for cycleways that
are parallel to a street. There are problems with either approach:

- either you draw a separate way (highway=cycleway), with the benefit
of being able to set proper maxspeed, surface, oneway, lanes, access,
turn-restrictions and other tags for the cycleway, but risking that
not all possible interchanges are mapped initially (common mapping
mistake). This also allows for small geometric details that otherwise
get lost (positional accuracy). The backdrop is that in some cases the
cycleway gets lost below the street in the rendering (dependent on
render order and render widths).

- if you set a cycleway=track you will not have most of the details
described above, but you'll have less work and possibly it will look
nicer in the rendering (if you don't care for details).


cheers,
Martin