[OSM-talk] Path vs footway vs cycleway vs...

[Jonathan Bennett]

Steve Bennett wrote:

> [...] I tend to
> believe I can ride my bike wherever the hell I want unless there's a
> sign saying otherwise. 

That's fine for your personal decision making. However, for OSM we need
to provide people with as much information as possible so they can make
their own, possibly different, decisions.

Record legal access rights using access=* and bicycle=* tags, and record
physical characteristics using width=* and surface=* tags, and include
any barrier=* on the path. Routers can choose whether only to use legal
routes that way, or add to path cost where there's a bike-unfriendly
barrier in the way.

If you don't *know* the legal situation this gets tricky, but that's
something we can clear up within each country eventually.

-- 
Jonathan (Jonobennett)