[talk-au] Practicality of mapping high-speed motor-traffic routes as cycle routes

[Dongchen Yue]

Hi all,

I’ve noticed many motorway shoulders in Australia (especially in Sydney) being mapped as cycle routes on OSM. Although this seems to be a common approach for motorways/other high-speed roads in Australia of which cycling is allowed on, I can hardly imagine it to be of any practical use (i.e. providing convenient and safe connections for people cycling).

Foremostly, this mapping approach defies the general purpose of cycle routes (both from an engineering perspective and the official OSM Wiki), that is, guiding people onto safe & convenient ways. Although cycling on most motorway shoulders in Australia is technically permitted and commonly done by the very few “strong and fearless” people (only ~1%, as indicated in past transport research), it’s both subjectively and statically quite unsafe, which gives no use to most people when rendered on tiles such as OpenCycleMap.

Also, these mapped motorway/high-speed road routes aren’t officially endorsed routes whatsoever, and are always referred to as separate pieces of infrastructure (e.g. “… cycleway”) by cycle-lobbying groups.
Afterall, these “routes” probably shouldn’t be mapped at all, since they aren’t much use to most people; tagging them with ‘cycling’: ‘designated’ and ‘cycleway’: ‘shoulder’ would be sufficient enough. What do you think of this solution?

Thanks in advance,
Dongchen Yue
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