[OSM-talk] Contraflow bus lane

[David Earl]

On 23/10/2008 09:00, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists) wrote:
> 
>> I also have one in the centre of Sutton Coldfield. Think when I  
>> mapped it
>> (ages and ages ago) I made it two separate ways which obviously  
>> isn't right.
>> So interested to hear what people think.
> 
> +1. There's one in Worcester. Except it's labelled (in the car-flow  
> direction) by "BUS & CYCLE" painted on the road, where cycle is the  
> usual pictogram.
> 
> Consequently you could, and I almost have, cycle along there in the  
> belief that it's a with-flow cycle lane... only to be flattened by an  
> oncoming bus. Not funny (well, maybe a bit).

Was that a +1 for separate ways or a +1 for "which obviously isn't 
right"? The latter I hope.

Given the existing use of psv=opposite_lane I'll go with that for now. 
(I don't think it does clash with psv=other things BTW). psv rather than 
bus is less than obvious for non-English speakers. Changing to 
bus=opposite_lane is merely linguistic tinkering, though I know how much 
that excites people on this list.

However, it occurs to me that there is a more general problem here. Many 
roads are divided into lanes with different uses (obviously with some 
basic defaults), including different types of vehicle - bus, with or 
without taxi, bicycle, motorbike, hgv; cycles with other traffic allowed 
too or not; multiple vehicle occupancy; ... - and different types of 
permitted manoeuvre - right turn only; left turn only; ...

The x=lane notation is going to bend at the knees doing this. Maybe we 
need a general mechanism that describes each lane when the road is more 
than a simple footway + n any-vehicle traffic lanes arrangement. Perhaps 
include the ones on the verge too. Hills Road in Cambridge 
(http://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=0.13402,52.17604,0.14951,52.18583&layer=mapnik&marker=52.18100,0.14119") 
would need a support description like this:

footway (on verge)
cycle track (on verge)
cycle lane (mandatory) (*)
any vehicle
any vehicle opposite
cycle lane opposite
footway

(* yes, there are parallel cycle track and cycle lane: 
http://www.camcycle.org.uk/map/location/5837/)

Newmarket Road between Barnwell Road and Ditton Lane ( 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=0.162679,52.211031,0.166552,52.213476&layer=mapnik&marker=52.21231,0.16471 
) would need

shared footway / cycle (on verge)
any vehicle left turn only
cycle lane (mandatory)
any vehicle straight on only
any vehicle opposite
any vehicle opposite
footway (on verge)

David