[OSM-talk] OpenStreetMap routing service

[Simon Hewison]

Shaun McDonald wrote:
> To confuse you even further depending on where you are on the A1,  
> depends on whether you can cycle there. For example between where it  
> meets the A720, and Dunbar you are not allowed to cycle on it, however  
> you are allowed to cycle on the rest of it between Edinburgh city  
> centre and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
> 
> Therefore for trunk roads, you cannot tell whether you can cycle there  
> or not.

Not so. You can tell easily. The bits of trunk road that you are not allowed 
to cycle on explicitly have "No cycling" signs.

I regularly cycle on many roads marked as "trunk" in openstreetmap, and I've 
only rarely come across sections of such roads where you cannot cycle. Those 
ones that I've encountered tend to be roads going through tunnels, where the 
usual "no horses, no pedestrians, no bicycles, no mopeds under 50cc" rule 
applies, and is signed as such (pretty much the same as motorway restrictions 
in the UK).

The annoying bit is that if you encounter such a sign as a cyclist, it's not 
often that the alternative route for prohibited vehicles is signposted.

As for foot. The same applies legally in the UK. Pedestrians are allowed on 
all roads other than motorways except where explicitly signposted.

Since we're supposed to be tagging in openstreeetmap according to what is on 
the ground in reality, any roads with explicit "no bicycles" signs should be 
recorded as such.

Of course, whether you'd be wise to take a horse, or indeed cycle or walk 
along a very busy dual carriageway with no shoulder and high speed traffic on 
it is a matter for your own conscience. Horse riders normally prefer country 
roads to busy roads, cyclists normally prefer flat roads, or roads wide enough 
for motor vehicles to pass them safely. Whether it's got green signposts 
denoting it's trunk or not is irrelevant to the decision to take that route.

-- 
Simon Hewison