[rant about cycle-centric tagging omitted]
I think the good/bad notion for roads for cycling is good. But, we should separate out "useful to get from here to there" with "how comfortable is it to ride (per distance?)". I know what you mean -- there are roads that I cycle on that I find very comfortable, and roads that are so bad I just won't go. It's not just about speed and width, but about typical driver behavior. (I live outside the city and drivers are more polite to cyclists and generally in less of a hurry.) Your schema seems to blend "is is safe/comfortable" with "is it pretty", and those should be separate. A cyclist who wants to get from here to there is likely to want to take extra distance for safety, but not for pretty. But someone going out to ride just to ride will feel differently. This is not about the cyclist, but about the purpose of the ride. The real difficulty is that different cyclists have different tolerances for riding in traffic. What I consider ok is very different than what some others I cycle with consider ok. The essence of tagging for cycle-friendliness of roads is to capture this judgement in a way that is consistent. Rubel publishes paper maps in my area, showing 'recommended roads for cycling: http://www.bikemaps.com/regmaps.htm#samplmap This is a binary system, and only roads that go somewhere are marked. But, the goal is similar to what you are advocating - finding a route without scary roads. Perhaps a few example videos for each of the grades, so that people can correlate the experiences? Or turn the classification around and label roads as: comfortable for novice, who only rides 10 hours/year on roads +2 comfortable for experienced non-city road cyclists +1 comfortable for urban bicycle commuter; tolerable for experienced non-city road cyclist =0 tended to be avoided even by seasoned commuters = -1 most cyclists would advise avoiding = -2 almost all cyclist would tell you it is nuts to ride this road = -3 The real goal is that when I get to a -1 road then my mental projection of comfort from knowing -1 matches my experience. Obviously impossible, but the closer the better.
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