Key:bicycle_road
 bicycle_road
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A bicycle road is a road designated for bicycles. 
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| Group: Cycleways |
| Used on these elements |
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| See also |
| Status: in use |
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The concept of a street designated primarily for cyclists is referred to in English usually as a bicycle boulevard, bicycle road, cycle street and some other names.
Whether this concept exists at all in legislation or what exactly this dedication encompasses differs somewhat in any one country. In some countries the legislation goes so far to forbid motor vehicle traffic unless signed otherwise outright (Germany, Estonia, ...), yet on the other end of the spectrum, it comes down to merely a request to car drivers to consider themselves as "guests" (Netherlands, Switzerland, ...). Most legislation have in common that at least cyclists are allowed to use the entire lane width, i.e. do not need to stay at the right edge of the roadway to allow motor vehicles to pass.
More details in the table below.
Tagging
A signed bicycle road is tagged with bicycle_road=yes. The tag should only be used in places where it is actually signed, not any road that appears bike-friendly or has some facilities that make cycling safer, as actual physical bike-friendly infrastructure can be mapped with other tags.
It is recommended to add the access restriction tags explicitly for the sake of clarification and to guarantee correct routing instructions for other vehicle classes. This is especially important if there is an extra sign below the sign which modifies which vehicles may use this road with which restrictions.
Type of highway
For considering the tag highway=* legal status of bicycle road is not important. The value is rather determined by the state of development of the road and its importance in the traffic system:
- highway=residential for bicycle roads which do not differ much from other streets in the residential area, e.g. with wide asphalt lane(s) and sidewalks
- highway=cycleway or highway=path for roads which tend to look like a regular cycleway or bike path rather than a road
Alternatively, highway=service or highway=unclassified can be used.
Signs and legislation around the world
| Country | Sign / Name | Implied restrictions unless signed otherwise[1] | Maximum legal speed[2] |
|---|---|---|---|
 Austria[3]
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Fahrradstraße |
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30 km/h |
 Belgium[4]
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Fietstraat / Rue cyclable |
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30 km/h |
 Canada
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Vélorue / Bicycle boulevard |
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30 km/h |
 the Czech Republic[6]
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.jpg) _(2016).jpg)
Cyklozóna |
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30 km/h |
 Denmark[7]
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Cykelgade |
30 km/h | |
 Estonia[9]
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Jalgrattasõidu ala |
- | |
 Finland[10]
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Pyöräkatu |
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-[2] |
 France[11]
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Vélorue | - (no legal status) | - |
 Germany[12]
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Fahrradstraße / Fahrradzone |
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30 km/h |
 Luxembourg[13][14]
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.svg)
Rue cyclable |
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30 km/h |
 Netherlands[15]
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_01.jpg)
Fietsstraat |
- (no legal status) | - |
 Russian Federation[16]
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Велосипедная зона |
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- |
 Spain[17]
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Ciclo calle / Ciclo carril | - (no legal status) | - |
 Sweden[18]
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Cykelgata |
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30 km/h |
 Switzerland[19]
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Velostrasse |
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30 km/h |
 United States
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Bicycle boulevard /
neighborhood greenway / ... |
- (no legal status) | - |
QuebecExamples
with motor vehicle, without kerb, gravel sidewalk left of the parking
with motor vehicle and kerb
without motor vehicle but kerb
Traffic sign 244.1 with additional sign
Rendering and Editor support
openstreetmap-carto and the OpenCycleMap do not render bicycle roads. CyclOSM shows them in blue.
JOSM supports bicycle_road=yes as a preset.
StreetComplete displays and allows to edit bicycle_road=yes (and cyclestreet=yes, see below) in the cycleway overlay since version 50.
Relation to cyclestreet=yes
The reason why two tags for about the same concept exist is likely because this page was initially just describing the German Fahrradstraße when it was created in 2010. When Belgian mappers documented cyclestreet=yes for the Belgian Fietsstraat in 2018, they either did not find this tag in the wiki or discarded it as too specific to the German legislation:
It has been documented that cyclestreet=yes should be used in countries where other vehicles than bicycles are allowed on bicycle roads by default while bicycle_road=yes is used in countries where only bicycles are allowed by default. However, the documentation has been out of line with the actual usage of the tags.. As of December 2022, the community in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg rather consistently uses cyclestreet=yes while bicycle_road=yes is used more overall. In most other countries, both tags are in use.
As the exact legal restrictions differ somewhat and may change in the different countries, trying to group them into two different tags is not a meaningful endeavor, as in no country, both the less restrictive and the more restrictive variants exist at the same time. Also, for example in Luxembourg, the law initially forbade general motor vehicle traffic on cycle streets. Only end of 2020, the law was watered down to be similar to the legislation in Belgium.
Hence, data consumers should treat cyclestreet=yes as synonymous to bicycle_road=yes and rather look at the actual access restrictions tagged, optionally fall back to the tags listed in the table above if nothing is set, for better accuracy.
See also
- Bicycle boulevard on Wikipedia
- Proposed_features/cycleroad - proposal from 2008, trying to establish a new value for highway=*
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- ↑ The legislation of pretty much all countries in which bicycle boulevards exists prohibit "impeding or endangering cycle traffic", which is really kind of a given but expressed as bicycle=designated in the below table.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The legislation of pretty much all countries in which bicycle boulevards exist as a concept mention something like "the maximum speed is as fast as the bicycle traffic is, but not more than..."
- ↑ Straßenverkehrsordnung 1960, §67 (2022-10-01) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Koninklijk besluit van 1 december 1975 houdende algemeen reglement op de politie van het wegverkeer en van het gebruik van de openbare weg, Titel II. Regels voor het gebruik van de openbare weg, Artikel 22novies. Verkeer in fietsstraten (2022-11-22) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Règles pour circuler sur une vélorue (retrieved 2022-11-24), see also The Highway Safety Code
- ↑ Zákon č. 361/2000 Sb., HLAVA II. PROVOZ NA POZEMNÍCH KOMUNIKACÍCH, Díl 3. Pravidla provozu na pozemních komunikacích, Oddíl 2. Jízda vozidly ve zvláštních případech, Provoz v obytné, pěší a cyklistické zóně, § 39a (2022-08-01) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Bekendtgørelse om vejafmærkning, Kapitel 2. Færdselstavler, E. Oplysningstavler og områdetavler, § 27., E47 (2021-12-09) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ "to- eller trehjulet køretøj med en forbrændingsmotor med et slagvolumen på ikke over 50 cm3 eller med elmotor og med en konstruktivt bestemt maksimal hastighed på højst 45 km i timen. Knallerter inddeles i stor knallert med en konstruktivt bestemt maksimal hastighed på over 30 km i timen og lille knallert med en konstruktivt bestemt maksimal hastighed på højst 30 km i timen." - Bekendtgørelse af færdselsloven, Kapitel 1. Lovens område m.v., Definitioner m.v. 7. Knallert (2017-05-01) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Liiklusmärkide ja teemärgiste tähendused ning nõuded fooridele, Mõjualamärgid, § 11. Mõjualamärgid ja nende tähendused, Märk 385. Jalgrattasõidu ala (2017-07-23) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Tieliikennelaki, 3 luku. Liikennesäännöt, 45 §. Liikennemerkillä osoitetulla pyöräkadulla ajaminen, pysäyttäminen ja pysäköinti (2018-08-10) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ There are a number of pilot projects with Vélorues but it did not lead to any change in legislation yet. Hence, the signage used and restrictions are all not official yet. See article about a cycle street in Strasbourg (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Straßenverkehrs-Ordnung (StVO), Anlage 2 (zu § 41 Absatz 1). Vorschriftzeichen, Abschnitt 5. Sonderwege, 23 (2013-06-03) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ CODE DE LA ROUTE, CIRCULATION SUR TOUTES LES VOIES PUBLIQUES, V SIGNAUX D’INDICATION, 17bis Rue cyclable (2022-10-23) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ The Luxembourg law on Rue cyclable was watered down in a revision in December 2020. The initial law only allowed access to Rue cyclable for bicycles. Motor vehicles of residents, delivery vehicles and vehicles carrying a special distinctive sign issued for them were also allowed, but could be restricted to certain times. Compare the original legislation from 2018 with the current one.
- ↑ Even though it is in use and a consistent sign is used, the sign itself has no legal status. The concept is that car drivers should behave like they are "guests" on this kind of road. See this article. (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Правила дорожного движения 2021 РФ., 24. Дополнительные требования к движению велосипедистов и водителей мопедов, 24.11 В велосипедной зоне
- ↑ Ciclo calles do not have any legal status in Spain (yet). Hence, there is no official sign for it (yet). It is also unclear if this is how it is going to stay or if the cycle streets that exist are pilot projects that eventually lead to a legislation. See for example this article (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Trafikförordning (1998:1276), 8 kap. Bestämmelser för trafik på gågata, cykelgata och i gångfartsområde m.m. , 1 a § (2022) (retrieved 2022-11-27)
- ↑ Bundesrat verabschiedet neue Verkehrsregeln und Signalisationsvorschriften, Weitere Änderungen per 1. Januar 2021(retrieved 2022-11-27) Other than the mentioned status alike a priority road, the Velostrasse has no legal status in Switzerland, yet, as the pilot projects seem to still be ongoing. See also this article and its associated links. (retrieved 2022-11-27)