[Tagging] RFC for bicycle_rental:type (+ update)

[Stefan Tauner]

On Mon, 15 Nov 2021 21:21:44 +0000
Pieter Vander Vennet <pietervdvn at posteo.net> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> With this email, I'd first of all like to formally ask for comments on 
> proposed tagging to amend amenity=bicycle rental 
> <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/bicycle_rental:type#Tagging>
> 
> I've made a small improvement with the earlier version, namely that one 
> can also tag the kind of bicycle (ebike, cargo bike, bmx,...) with key 
> /bicycle_rental=*/ as is already sporadically used according to taginfo.
> 
> However, the biggest part of this proposal is still to tag the precise 
> way the bicycles are rented out, e.g. through a key dispensing machine, 
> a docking station or a shop which is tagged with key bicycle_rental:type.
> I'm still a bit unsure about the precise tagging (e.g. a better suffix 
> then :type would be good, but I can't think of something right away).
> 
> At last, I'd also like to introduce commonly used tagging for payment 
> methods, authentication, access, ...
> 
> Feel free to post you thoughts and remarks on the wiki or via the 
> mailing list.

Hi,

thanks for your effort, I think it's very relevant.
Maybe it has been discussed already but I couldn't find it: Why not use
bicycle_rental=docking_station,..., i.e. tag the rental type directly,
and come up with a namespace-tag for the bicycle type? It will have the
same "type" problem just with the bicycle types instead of rental types
though :) However, I think in terms of a geoservice like OSM the rental
type is more important than the bicycle type - and the one that should
be tagged primarily in most situations (I am thinking about city- or
even country-wide networks where the user *knows* the type beforehand
anyway: The bike type can often be derived from the rental type (e.g., I
won't expect a tandem from a docking station - however there are
exceptions to this: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:TyskiRower.jpg
and I won't expect a cargobike next to a mtb park in the alps :)

Also, the bike types stated do not sufficiently describe bikes.
"ebike" does not mean anything... that could literally be any type of
bike geometry (cargobike, citybike, mtb...) with a motor attached.
We could define bicycle_rental:geometry={bmx,mtb,tandem,city,...} and
bicycle_rental:ebike=yes/no/both but what if the rental has e-cargo
bikes and normal mtb?
Another option would be to list geometries for both types, e.g.,
bicycle_rental:ebikes=<geometries> and bicycle_rental:bikes=<geometries>

-- 
Kind regards/Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Stefan Tauner