[Talk-us] Removing US Bicycle Route tags

[stevea]

An update to the talk-us pages on what most here might feel got 
"typed to death" in a lengthy thread.

Kerry and I have recently exchanged over a dozen missives, resulting 
in substantial improvement in how OSM captures data representing 
national bicycle routes.  However, due to slower render cycles, the 
Cycle Map layer (OCM) has catching up to do, especially at wider zoom 
levels.

Correctly (well, SUBSTANTIALLY correctly!) tagged are completed 
routes as part of the USBR system:  e.g. USBR 1 and 76, USBR 20 and 
35 in Michigan, with route=bicycle + network=ncn + ref=#.

Additionally, the (confusing and usually incorrect) tagging NE2 added 
to many state routes (network=rcn) is being slowly but surely removed 
as it is untangled from these routes due to what Kerry knows 
first-hand:  most of these "ncn=proposed" tags were added as NE2 
wrongly believed that "ACA's map from AASHTO showing 50-mile-wide 
corridors = a correct assertion that state routes in these corridors 
can be promoted to proposed national routes."  Cooler heads agree: 
they most certainly cannot.  There seem to be a tiny handful of state 
routes that state-produced DOT documents assert "should become USBR 
#xy" or "are recommended to be promoted to a national route in the 
USBR corridor" and in those few cases, an additional ncn=proposed tag 
may be added to the existing network=rcn + ref = state_route_# tags 
on the route relation.  Where and whether to do this remains a fluid 
decision, Kerry has a finger directly on this pulse.

Due to slow OCM rendering, Kerry and I also use the (rendered daily) 
lonvia maps produced by Sarah Hoffman (see 
http://cycling.waymarkedtrails.org/en/?zoom=5&lat=36.57&lon=-93.53&hill=0.375&route=1) 
as a more up-to-date visualization tool.  Right about now, that map 
comes closer to displaying a reasonable facsimile of national bicycle 
routes in the USA (though state/regional routes remain under 
construction).  For better or worse, the waymarkedtrails.org map does 
not respect "proposed" tags, it only shows ACTUAL national, state and 
local routes (and its zoom levels to do so are different than OCM's). 
This allows two renderers to be used for two purposes:  Sarah's 
waymarkedtrails.org renderer can be a (substantially closer to 
correct) representation of REAL bicycle routes, while Andy's OCM 
renderer can be a fair representation of REAL + PROPOSED bicycle 
routes.  (If only OCM refreshed tiles a bit more often!).

I write this to show what careful, polite collaboration between 
somebody familiar with on-the-ground semantics (Kerry) and somebody 
familiar with the syntax of OSM/OCM/rendering (me) can do together to 
promote harmony, allowing for better visualization of wide-area 
bicycle routing.  Bicycle routing, especially at state and national 
levels, involves coordination among large numbers of people, requires 
public process, and takes months and years.  OSM stands ready to 
accommodate with rich syntax and multiple renderings that correctly 
visually communicate to relevant parties a reasonably current state 
of these endeavors.

Kerry and I will likely continue to coordinate OSM efforts on bicycle 
routes at the state level, growing additional OSM community.  So, 
there is still substantial work ahead.  Though it is only partial for 
now, and we expect it to become much better in the future, I wish to 
offer this little slice of effort as a true success story for OSM: 
from a strong urge to promote more fresh and accurate wide-area 
bicycle route mapping (in the USA and worldwide), OSM, in its 
wonderful richness and with multiple renderings, delivers.

Nice cloud we have here, OSM!

SteveA
California