Phil (ascentale)6d ago

@PamelaSchure asks:

Q7. I saw that willcycle is looking to create tourist biking routes in cities. This might be a great project for those who want to contribute or even those who want to propose a route through their spot. Here’s a link to his post. https://www.willcycle.com/2025/03/25/citycycle/

Do you have a go-to source for cycle routes, as a tourist?

#BikeNiteQ #BikeNite #BikeTooter #Cycling #MastoBikes cc @bikenite

CityCycle - WillCycle

CityCycle routes will be detailed, leisure-cycling, sight-seeing routes for various UK cities, but YOUR help is needed to start building these route guides

WillCycle - Because you deserve some adventure in your life
Show threadedd

@ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite A7. Intrigued on answers, don't know of much for the US. Would love for this kind of info to make it back to OpenStreetMap for bicycle friendliness somehow. That's kind of my biggest gripe is that bike "routes" aren't always friendly and require a lot of local knowledge to avoid the "officially it's a bike route, but there's no protection and everyone drives 15mph over the 45 mph speed limit" roads.

#BikeNite

Apr 26 at 1:55amWeb
Show threadScott Kilcoyne6d ago
@edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite I'm working on a Boston bike stress map based on OSM data, trying to get it published in the next couple of weeks. Would love for others to implement my project in other cities.
Show threadOzzie D, NP-hard  6d ago

@scooooooott @edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite Does any system codify "usually cleared of ice & snow" into route designations? It's one factor that I can't assess well before setting out in a new direction.

(This bit me in February, when I took a side trip from work to Waltham to pick up something for my partner, looked at OgMaps and thought, "oh, cool, I'll hop on the Mass Central Rail Trail" for a chunk of the way back... only to find it was a glacier.)

Show threadedd6d ago
@ozdreaming @scooooooott @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite I'm not very knowledgeable on OSM tagging, but I don't think this is tracked in any way remotely close to a "standard". But I also live in a city that rarely sees snow, so there's certainly no bike lane specific policy for clearing it so we'd have no reason to start tagging it.
Show threadScott Kilcoyne5d ago
@ozdreaming @edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite I don't think that type of data would be appropriate for OSM, but I could see bike orgs curating that knowledge and/or publishing/sharing condition reports after storms, especially as part of a push for better maintenance
Show threadScott Kilcoyne5d ago
@ozdreaming @edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite back when I was commuting on the Minuteman, they did plow regularly, but the timing versus the type of storm could lead to very different results, and often it actually was better the first day or two after a storm then got worse with freeze/thaw cycles creating icy ruts. Really, having a centralized place for condition reports to send and see would be way better in my opinion than noting if a stretch is usually plowed
Show threadedd5d ago
@scooooooott @ozdreaming @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite I would agree with that. OSM isn't really for dynamic data like that. From a travel point of view, more static path/road maintenance conditions would be nice more often.
Show threadScott Kilcoyne5d ago
@edd @ozdreaming @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite biking doesn't really need traffic reports, but condition reports would be nice sometimes (and way easier to systematically improve that traffic, which kinda would actually be solved by being in a place that cared enough about biking to have bike condition reports)
Show threadMJ Ray5d ago
@scooooooott @ozdreaming @edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite there's winter_service tags in OSM and maintenance=salting, but I don't know how widely cycleways are tagged.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:winter_service
Key:winter_service - OpenStreetMap Wiki

Show threadScott Kilcoyne5d ago
@mjr @ozdreaming @edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite those look interesting, but yeah, would need a local project to tag enough stuff and maintain those tags to be useful in an area, and still didn't really get to if there are icy patches because the plow came just before the end of all the snow from the storm or there are plowed piles making a mess of intersections, technically cleared but practically dangerous
Show threadMJ Ray5d ago
@scooooooott @ozdreaming @edd @ascentale @PamelaSchure @bikenite yes, it doesn't tell you current status, but it's a start and could help people build a status board or map.