[talk-au] Cycle tags on motorways

[stevea]

On Aug 17, 2022, at 8:12 PM, Andrew Harvey <andrew.harvey4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Aug 2022 at 12:26, Little Maps <mapslittle at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi folks, is there any consensus on how to tag cycling on motorway shoulders?
> 
> In some places, the simple tag bicycle=yes (or no) is used.
> 
> We should explicitly tag every motorway with bicycle=yes/no because some motorways allow bicycles and others forbid them.
> 
> In others, the left hand shoulder is tagged as a cycle lane, using "cycleway=lane" or "cycleway:left=lane". Others have  used "cycleway=shoulder".
> 
> In addition to the general bicycle=* access tag, where bicycles are allowed we should tag what kind of bicycle facility is there.
> 
> On the ground, the signs I know (in Vic and S NSW) usually read, "cyclists use left shoulder" and "emergency lane, bicycles excepted". It's not explicitly called a cycle lane in Vic or NSW road guidelines, only that bicycle access is permitted along the road shoulder (as on any other non-motorway road).
> 
> Based on that signage I would say cycleway=shoulder is more appropriate as indicates the shoulder is the designated place for bicycles (as opposed to cycling in the motorway vehicle traffic lanes).
> 
> Though sometimes it's not clear. Markings like https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=382158833064847 are common with marked bicycle crossings which make it look more like a cyclelane than a shoulder cyclists must use.
>  
> In my mind, there's a big difference between tags that imply, "you're allowed to ride on the motorway" (as on any other road) versus, "there's a dedicated bike lane here".
> 
> Yeah agreed, hence the difference between the bicycle=* access tag and the cycling facility cyleway=*.

I have also explicitly set bicycle=yes and bicycle=no tags on certain ways.  That's another / supplemental way to do something similar.  What we see here is that "depending on your use-case or the question you are asking, you might want to search for both / some of / all of /with others of... bicycle=* and/or access=* and/or cycleway=shoulder tags.  These overlap, have slightly different shades of meaning, and sometimes smear together in the minds of mappers.  OSM is not perfect and is sometimes complicated.  Good dialog (like here, even ASKING of questions) is often helpful.  There can be many answers and harmonizing / consensus happens among many.