[talk-au] Tagging for "unofficial" Cycle routes in Lake Macquarie?

[Ian Sergeant]

On 30 April 2012 18:24, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:

> What if there were two signed routes near each other, but there
> wasn't, strictly speaking, a signed route between the two? Let's say
> 200m.

Focussing on hypothetical edge cases always seems to me to result in
bad decisions.

I would accept that in a location with a well developed cycle network,
you'd like to think that if there was a 200m gap in a cycle route that
it could be a mistake or an omission, and the best thing to do is the
link the cycle route sections to correct it, and make a through route.

However, certainly in New South Wales this is likely not to be the
case.  Any cyclist around Sydney will be all too familiar with the
cycle lane that disappears, leaving you on a 80km/h full-on three lane
highway, with some semblance of a cycling facility possibly resuming
some distance up the road.

It comes back to what a cycle route is.  Cyclists who just want the
shortest trip between two points don't need to look at cycle routes,
they can just go.  A cyclist following a cycle route is looking for
some kind of cycling amenity, whether than be quiet, flat, lanes, etc.
 So, it is clear cut to me that we shouldn't connect purely
directional signs on roads with no cycling amenity.  Where there is a
gap in the route, we should make that apparent, and not disguise it.

I can see this type of connection being valid is where the the route
has been clearly updated on the ground.  For example, along the Cooks
River cycleway where they have opened new cycleway linking sections,
replacing old road or shared path sections.

In other words we're human mappers.  Official cycle routes are often
wrong, as other mapping services are often wrong.  And yes, we should
be able to correct cycle routes when they don't correspond to an
amenable through route on the ground.  It's a fair jump from this
position to being able to enter personally preferred routes, or that
we should automatically link two route sections just because they are
close.

Ian.