[OSM-talk] tagging suitability for use by race bikes to roads

[gr_osm at gmx.de]

OJ W wrote:
> How about this discussion...
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Routing_profiles
>
>
> I tried some bike routing with pyroute and it seemed fairly happy
> choosing residential roads around town.  The only real change for
> fragile bikes would be that it's difficult to tell whether
> "highway=cycleway" is a suitable route.
>
> Perhaps we could start by saying that highway=cycleway is only
> routeable by road bikes if it also contains surface=sealed or
> surface=tarmac.
>   

Oh, i missed that discussion on routing profiles ...

The remark of Sven Anders shows that you can't simply derive the cycle 
quality from given structural properties of the road. However, the 
heuristics you propose will produce good results in many cases, but there 
is no way to tweak it, when it does not.
 
The cycle quality of a road is highly subjective. And racing bike quality 
maybe something else than commuter bike quality.

But if you ask a racing bike user, he can certainly tell you, if a street 
he rode was good or even excellent, or if he didn't liked it (=poor) or if 
he feared for his life (=avoid).


I belive that there is no need for a finer grade scale. If you plan a route 
you will try to use good or excellent roads. Poor road will only be used to 
get from one good road to another good one.


In the other mails in this thread it is discussed, if tagging racing bike 
quality can be done by everyone. (so far as i understood the mails).


I belive that only people who are aware of the special needs of road racers 
can tag racing bike quality "correctly". But those people will also be the 
only users of that information!

Ari wrote:
> When I think of it, why categorically restrict grading only to features
> that everybody can grade (relatively) "correctly" after just having a
> look at the tagging description? Quickly thinking this seems to me like
> an unnecessary limitation to OSM. If a tag that requires more knowledge
> would be usefull for a certaing group of users, why not let it to be
> used? Everybody doesn't *have to* tag anything. Again, an appropriate
> warning of the required level of knowledge might be used in the
> instruction.

Will tagging the special needs of a small group of users be ok for the osm 
community, or will my racing bike tags be removed by someone else?

Regards
  Gerriet