[OSM-talk] Tag:highway=cycleway inconsistency

[Michael Collinson]

At 02:20 PM 7/3/2008, Florian Lohoff wrote:
>the wiki page for Tag:highway=cycleway has some inconsistencys. On the
>right it says "implies: ... foot=yes" ... In the examples on the lower
>part of the page it says "highway=cycleway" + "foot=yes".
>
>So either the example suggests setting an obsolete tag or the implies
>are broken.
>
>Also the blue sign (German StVO Zeichen 237) implies foot=no so even
>another inconsistency concerning the implies at least for germany.

There has never been, AFAIK, any definitive discussion on a 
systematic set of defaults for the highway= tag or any tag for that 
matter. Hence any inconsistency. Though I think the examples you 
quote are not inconsistent ... the second one is a caption for a 
photo [1] with a sign explicitly allowing both foot and cycle, 
capturing that is good practice I think ... though I am lazy in that regard.

I certainly agree that the default for foot access should be one or 
the other for highway=cycleway.

My own preference is for default foot=yes.

Outside Europe, I've never personally seen paths or tracks where 
cycles go but not foot traffic. There is also usually no explicit 
signage, people just do.

In Sweden, paths I've seen are either unsigned or when signed, 
overwhelming with a blue sign for both cycle and foot.  Cycle-only 
paths are rare, and when I find them, I add foot=no.  I wonder if 
that is true for Germany and the Netherlands too?


Mike



[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Tag:highway%3Dcycleway#See_also

Also:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Map_Features#Highway
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Key:cycleway