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

[Mike Collinson]

At 08:16 PM 7/05/2008, gr_osm at gmx.de wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I would like to use osm to tag the appropriateness for use by road racing bicycles to roads. I have searched the mailing list and the wiki, but found no suitable commonly accepted tag.
>
>Riding on a road by a racing bike is not just a matter of surface quality but also a matter of traffic density and maybe other factors. Because of that, I believe a new tag like "racebiking"="excellent","good","poor" or "avoid" would be a good way to express this property of the road.
>
>What do you think?

This is one to just try out and see if it catches on whether or not you make a formal Map Features proposal.  It is simple to collect and tag but only practical experimentation by more than one person will determine if the amount of subjectivity makes the result useful for manual or software routing.

IMHO, there is a role for simple but subjective tagging in OSM as long as there is a reasonably described reference point.  I'd be happy to try it out if you,  Gerriet, would define the reference.  

I think you mean something like the following.  Since surface is a major part, the key thing would be the type of bike.  I, for example, ride a road bike with sturdy tyres so I'd have to shift my "good" fast pressed-gravel tracks to "poor" if you want to use tubeless tyres as reference.

"Would you recommend this stretch of road for an individual or club training ride on ...

a) an expensive racing/club bike with thin, possibly tubeless, tyres.

OR

b) an ordinary road bike with normal medium-thickness tyres

based on surface, traffic/pedestrian density, number of junctions and hazards

"excellent","good","poor" or "avoid" "


Mike