[Talk-GB] Tagging roads for cycle suitability

[Richard Fairhurst]

We had a bit of a discussion on IRC today about how best to tag the  
"bike-friendliness" of an all-purpose road.

Some roads are clearly much friendlier to cyclists than others: low  
traffic, low car speeds, easy overtaking, no difficult junctions. If  
we could tag these accordingly, it would make for better cycle  
cartography and route-planning.

However, tagging them is far from trivial. Measuring traffic and  
average car speeds is beyond the resources of the average OSM mapper;  
yet at the other end of the spectrum, saying  
"bicycle_suitability=good" is very subjective.

I've put some outline thoughts, based on an upcoming UK standard, at

    http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Cheltenham_Standard

and would welcome comments. (Have sent this only to talk-gb to begin  
with, with the thought "let's establish something that works at least  
in one part of the world".)

cheers
Richard