OpenStreetMap
Tagging cycleways as oneway=yes
Posted by Head on 21 April 2010 in English. Last updated on 22 April 2010.I've started tagging Aachen cycleways next to roads as oneway=yes, as suggested by http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bicycle#Cycle_tracks (in the hope that openrouteservice will then no longer suggest to ride on the wrong side of the road).
I wonder if it is really necessary to render the small arrows on the cycle tracks. At least in Germany, most people know that you may not ride on the opposite cycleway.
Discussion
Comment from dekarl on 21 April 2010 at 10:13
In germany you must ride on the wrong side of the road if there is a cycleway but not on the right side.
So if you got a long road that has partly dual cycleways and partly just one cycleway you must cross the road multiple times!
So it's nice to tag it correcly to enable the router to penalice such roads for cycle routing.
Comment from Fabi2 on 21 April 2010 at 15:21
I thougth about making my own cyclemap, which ignores such thinks as the direction of using the cycleway. Using the cycleway, ever in wrong direction is far more secure as using the street instead. And after the highway=footway bicycle=yes-signs, you can even ride on the footways, if you don't ride over the pedastrians (see §1 StVO), as some poeple do, but around them.
Waiting for the day to pay a penanlty for doing this..
Comment from dekarl on 21 April 2010 at 16:42
Well, I tend to avoid cycleways on either side as they tend to be in bad shape, curving around between trees, parking slots, etc and obstructed from the view of car drivers... But then, waiting to pay a penalty for this, too :)
First google hit on that topic: http://radweg.radzeug.de/
I suggest to allow the router to have a legal default. (and some advanced "ride as everyone does anyway" option)
Comment from Baloo Uriza on 21 April 2010 at 19:52
Fabi2: There's something to be said for legal requirements and encouraging others to share the road, too. Probably a Bad Thing™ to encourage people to do something so stupid as driving against traffic, even if it is a bicycle.
Comment from Andrew Chadwick on 22 April 2010 at 10:52
oneway=yes implies a legal restriction, so it's *technically* the wrong tag to use in situations where it's legally possible to ride in both directions (even though that's a really bad idea around road junctions). That said, we blur the distinctions over here (UK) between {cycleways, bridleways, tracks, service roads, footways} by tagging by how the thing appears rather than how it's signposted. Smooth (signed-as-)bridleways are highway=cycleway with horse=yes not vv., at least in Oxford... there's always designation=* for legal RoW status.
The UK doesn't force you to use adjacent cycleways if they're present. We leave forcing cyclists off the road to passing motor traffic driven by shouty red-faced future heart attack victims... :(
I could go with oneway=yes on a cycle track for representing the direction a "suggestion" arrow goes in (the UK has these just over the bike symbol, and they represent turns too). But I'd prefer something like oneway=suggested (for {+arrows -legal}) or oneway=advised (for {-arrows -legal}, to show that the _OSM Mapper_ thinks it's wisest to use the way as a oneway).
Comment from Head on 22 April 2010 at 11:38
@Andrew: In Germany, you are not allowed to ride on the left-side cycleway, unless there are signs that explicitly allow using it. Of course I wouldn't tag a left-side cycleway as oneway=yes when there are such signs.
In the UK, the situation is quite different, as (from what you've written) the law seems to be less restrictive concerning cycling on the opposite cycleway.
Comment from Fabi2 on 22 April 2010 at 13:47
@Paul Johnson: Yes, it is a legal requirement and I don't encourage peapole to use the cycleway in the wrong direction. But what I wrote is my oppinion about this requirement, which is far behind reality.
Even if I drove on the the cycleway in the right direction, many car drivers don't notice that you are on the cycleway and they must let pass you by before they aproach to the crossing. Reality is, that you must alway check for aproaching cars as if you are on a footway.
So I ask me where is the diffenence by using the footway or cycleway in the wrong direction, as this requirement is without any logical difference?