[Tagging] railway=abandoned + highway=cycleway (was: [OSM-talk-be] Abandoned Railways / cycleways)

[Phil! Gold]

* Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> [2013-04-19 01:22 +1000]:
> 1) A single way: "railway=abandoned | highway=cycleway | name=Blah Rail
> Trail | surface=unpaved" (usually with a cycle route relation as well)

This is basically how I tag them, with the following additions:

 a) If the trail meanders a little from side to side (where the old
    railway would have just gone straight), I match the way to the trail
    and trust that the semantics of "this used to be a railway" remain
    intact.

 b) If the trail diverges significantly from the old railway (to take a
    detour or something similar), I make a separate ways for the trail and
    old railway.  An example is http://osm.org/go/ZZfEh16SR-- , where the
    trail was diverted to better cross the road or
    http://osm.org/go/ZZfEbCqE , where a mall was built in the path of the
    old railway.

 c) If there are still rails present, even if they definitely qualify as
    railway=abandoned, I use two ways, like http://osm.org/go/ZcJqM34YW-
    (not my work, but a decent example).