[Tagging] "Feature Proposal - RFC - bicycle=use_cycleway

[Robert Whittaker (OSM lists)]

On 14 November 2013 09:13, Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdreist at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I don't see why you can't tag the roads you're talking about
>> with bicycle=no (or maybe something like bicycle=restricted for the
>> cases where more significant use is allowed) and then add a second tag
>> along the lines of bicycle:restriction=DE:use_cycleway to capture the
>> fact that the legal exclusion of bikes is because of X country's
>> parallel cycleway rules.
>
> You shouldn't do it, because it would be wrong. There is no legal exclusion of bikes on the road, there is an obligation - under certain circumstances - to use the cycleway, this is a difference and should not be tagged like an exclusion of bikes on the road (e.g. like on a motorway)

Assuming that you meet the "certain circumstances", I see little
practical difference between "You can't cycle on the road" and "you
must use the cycleway and not the road" in terms of whether or not you
are allowed to cycle along the road. Granted, crossing and turning may
be slightly different, but for general riding along a stretch of road
the effect will be the same -- you can't ride there.

However, these slight differences are why I suggested using
bicycle=restricted for when the prohibition caused by the presence of
a parallel cycleway isn't so absolute. Doing this would seem to be
perfectly correct -- cycling on the road is indeed restricted. Doing
it this way (rather than a single tag) has the advantage of using a
more general value on the access tag (that is thus more likely to be
interpreted in an appropriate fashion by more routers), while still
allowing (encouraging even) a more specific tag to capture the precise
detail of exactly what the (country-specific) restrictions are. We
then don't confuse the effect of the legal restrictions with the cause
of the restrictions. By encouraging mappers to specify the precise
source of the restrictions in a separate tag, we're less likely to get
mappers using a bicycle=use_cycleway style tag inappropriately due to
misunderstandings, and should end up with better-defined tags and more
accurate data.

-- 
Robert Whittaker