[OSM-talk] how to map this? cycleway or footpath?

[James Livingston]

On 10/09/2009, at 9:01 PM, Sybren A. Stüvel wrote:
> Perhaps my perspective is very Dutch, as here in NL you are always
> allowed to walk on a cycleway. When a pedestrian sees a cycleway on
> the map she'll know that she can walk on it and use it as a footpath.
> However, when a cyclist sees a footpath on the map, he'll assume he
> won't be allowed to cycle there.

> The standard mapping in NL boils down to:
>
>    - Only pedestrians allowed => highway=pedestrian
>    - Also cyclists allowed => highway=cycleway


This is where it starts to run into the "what does designated mean?"  
argument :-\

I would agree that if there is a sign/symbol indicating you can ride  
there (bicycle=designated) and not a sign for pedestrian traffic, then  
it's a cycleway. Are the ones you're allowed to cycle on signed as such?

The problem is when there is no signage - for example in some parts of  
Australia (ACT), you can ride on footpaths unless it's signed otherwise 
[0]. Simply following the above rule would mean that 99% of the  
footpaths are marked highway=cycleway, which I think would be silly  
since although you can ride on them, they are primarily meant for foot  
traffic. I also seem to recall somewhere (Germany?) where you can't  
walk on designated cycleways without a sign indicating you can.


I don't really want to get into this argument again, but I believe  
that either we're going to end up with local rules for the access  
mappings, or some regions are going to have to tag every single  
cycleway/footway with overrides. Personally, I think the former is  
better because it's a lot less work and there are going to be other  
things that need local interpretations - such as whether  
highway=residential should be practically treated as  
access=destination for the purposes of vehicle routing.

[0] I didn't know that earlier, but someone mentioned it in the last  
debate and it did explain why cyclists kept almost running into me  
when I lived in Canberra.