I support David's reply - so far as England and Wales is concerned. A bridleway is a legally defined way that should be so signed on the ground (by law where it joins or intersects a motor road). Cyclists are allowed to use bridleways (except where explicitly forbidden by a local ordinance - a rarity). There is no formal definition of a cycleway but the word seems to have (at least) three meanings: (a) a dedicated way for cyclists alongside a motor road and so signed on the ground, (b) a dedicated way for cyclists - often alongside a way for pedestrians or sometimes shared with them - usually paved and in urban areas - and so signed on the ground, (c) a medium- to long-distance route for cyclists designated by the charity SusTrans and often using other ways, e.g. quiet motor roads, bridleways, towpaths, etc. but rarely (if ever?) designated only for cyclists. Where there is any doubt from signage on the ground I would use highway=footpath, =bridleway, =byway as recognisable designations and add foot=yes, bicycle=yes, etc. The recent trend also to use a designated= tag (as discussed about a month ago in this list) is helpful as regards legal status drawn from any non-copyright database. The existing tags surface= are helpful to describe condition of the surface and thus suitability for e.g. cyclists. Other options in wide use are tracktype= and (I'm not getting into this one!) smoothness= (;>).
Mike Harris -----Original Message----- From: David Earl [mailto:da...@frankieandshadow.com] Sent: 23 March 2009 14:26 To: osm Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] highway=cycle&footway On 23/03/2009 14:18, Richard Mann wrote: > OK. So I get fed up because one of these OSM types insists on > retagging something that I think is a cycleway as a bridleway just > because it's got a sign. > > I don't have time to have an edit war & I get so fed up I'm close to > giving up on OSM entirely, but decide to have one last stab at making > sense of it. > > So I float a proposal on talk-gb, for highway to be physical (which > means it must distinguish all major path classes, so I propose > highway=cycle&footway to plug what to me is a big gap), designation to > cover the law, and access to cover routing. > > So rather than make an off-hand comment on a different list under a > different subject, why not just say "I like", "I don't like", "I don't > care" or "but..." or something vaguely helpful?????? If it says bridleway, then surely it is a bridleway, since these tags are informed by evidence on the ground, not a statutory database of legal rights. How do you _know_ it is a cycleway if the sign says otherwise? If you're a horse rider, you might well be just a peeved the other way by you changing "their" bridleway to a cycleway. In the UK bridleways are legally accessible by cyclists, so if you're trying to use this in a context of cycling, why not just recognise bridleway as something you can cycle on, or change the access tags to make this clear. You could also set the surface tag to indicate that it is a paved surface and thereofre better suited to cycling than most bridleways (if it is, of course). If you're just worried that mapnik *shows* it as a bridleway, then surely Mapnik is right to do so in this case if that's what the sign says. David _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
