[OSM-talk] Cambridge City Centre Cycling Map

[David Earl]

On 06/12/2007 12:30, Andy Allan wrote:
> That's really cool. Can I ask how you did the symbol placement - I'm
> guessing by hand?

Yes. The base map was assembled from Mapnik tiles, and then 
substantially simplified in Photoshop and some of the horizontal 
captions replaced because they weren't clear enough. The symbols were 
also added in Photoshop layers.

(If we had had the time, we'd have done a new style sheet for Mapnik or 
Osmarender to do thicker streets and possibly larger captions, and 
dropped all the extraneous detail like churches etc at that time rather 
than by image editing. Incidentally, the college buildings you can now 
see on OSM were added after we started the project).

> Also, I'm intrigued by the cycling-both-ways thing. I've checked a few
> of the roads in the db, and they are mostly just marked as oneway=true
> - are these roads where the no entry sign says "except for cycles" or
> are do they have separate contraflow cycle lanes? I don't know
> Cambridge that well so I'm interested in the real world more than the
> tagging.

If you scroll down the page I sent the link to above, you'll see some 
photographs of some of the locations and how they are signed.

The streets where cycles can go both ways are mostly "false" one way 
streets - that is no entry signs at the end, with a cycle bypass - a 
very common arrangement in Cambridge. Some are done by "no motor 
vehicles" signs (including the newly lifted restriction in Corn Exchange 
street which looks like a contraflow lane but formally actually isn't), 
and there is one formal contraflow cycle lane (in Downing Street / 
Pembroke Street).

I think I've put cycleway=opposite_way on the true one way streets where 
cycling is allowed (like Downing Street), but there are some 
restrictions tags missing on the No Motor Vehicles streets.

The rules are so complicated on some streets I didn't try to tag them, 
though now we have relations I might be able to). For example, Sidney 
Street south is two way for bikes, false one way for motors (that is, 
one cannot enter from the north but in theory one could legally turn 
round, though in practice it would be a disaster if you did), but 
additionally motor vehicles are prohibited 10-4, and _private_ motor 
vehicles cannot even legally get there because they are banned at all 
times further out.

If you wan to see more examples of the signage, use the photomap (sorry, 
its Google) at http://www.camcycle.org.uk/map/location/ and once you've 
got a photo in a location use "show more nearby".

David