Proposal:Deprecate cycleway=shared
| Deprecate cycleway=shared | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Draft (under way) |
| Proposed by: | tordans |
| Tagging: | cycleway=shared |
| Applies to: | 
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| Definition: | Propose the deprecation of the cycleway=shared value.
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| Statistics: |
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| Draft started: | 2024-06-29 |
| RFC start: | 2024-07-26 |
Proposal
Deprecate the cycleway=shared tag (not cycleway=shared_lane) and suggest replacing it with more accurate tagging or removing it when it provides no additional information.
Rationale
The tag cycleway=shared is currently ambiguous and confusing for mappers and data consumers. The key cycleway is intended to describe bicycle infrastructure. However, limited documentation on cycleway=shared suggests it indicates the absence of explicit bicycle infrastructure, a concept currently represented by cycleway=no. Historical usage inferred from the wiki points to a meaning now conveyed by segregated=yes.
Eliminating poorly defined or outdated tags will simplify the tagging schema, making it more comprehensible and user-friendly, thereby easing the documentation and teaching of OSM practices.
Some mappers use the cycleway=shared tag to denote the bicycle friendliness of certain roads. This, however, is not the tag's established definition and should be indicated using other tags such as road class, surface/smoothness, width, and lanes[1].
OSM Wiki Analysis
An analysis of the tag's documentation across various language versions of the wiki revealed no country-specific usage variations…
(The Google Translate link is a copy of the relevant section of the wiki.)
- Cs:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- DE:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- ES:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- FR:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- IT:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- NL:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- Pl:Key:cycleway – Not translated
- Pt:Key:cycleway – Not translated
- RU:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- Zh-hans:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
- JA:Key:cycleway – Google Translate
Migration Path
| Current Tagging | Updated Tagging | Description |
|---|---|---|
highway=cyclewaycycleway=shared
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highway=cyclewaysegregated=no |
For bike lanes meant to be used by both foot and bike traffic. According to the limited documentation provided by the wiki, cycleway=shared was previously used to indicate what is now tagged as segregated=no. Please also check the conventions for mapping shared bike and foot paths in your country, as some countries recommend using highway=path.
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highway=* (e.g., residential)cycleway=shared
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highway=*cycleway:both=no
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For highways where bike traffic shares the road with motor vehicles without explicit bicycle infrastructure. This tagging makes the absence of infrastructure explicit but does not map the default shared road usage. |
highway=*cycleway:left=*/nocycleway:right=*/no
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For highways where bike traffic shares the road with motor vehicles but one side does have bicycle infrastructure, the other one does not. | |
highway=*cycleway=shared_lane |
In some cases, the tagging might be a mis-tagging and should be updated to shared_lane.
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Examples
| Example | Example Imagery | Update Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| way/107980596 Version 1, 13 years old highway=cyclewaybicycle=designatedfoot=designatedcycleway=shared
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Google Street View (Reminder: We cannot use this as a source to update OSM; we need our own ground truth for that.) | Option 1: Replace with segregated=noOption 2: The street-level imagery suggests it should be highway=path without additional tags, as there are no traffic signs indicating specific bicycle usage.
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| way/545883059 Version 1 from 2017, Deep History |
Mapillary | Option 1: Replace cycleway=shared with cycleway:both=no to indicate missing infrastructure or separate cycleway tags per side (e.g. cycleway:right=no + cycleway:left=track).Option 2: Simply remove cycleway=shared.
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| way/872369774 Version 9 from ~2 years ago, Deep History |
Google Street View (Reminder: We cannot use this as a source to update OSM; we need our own ground truth for that.) | Assuming the tagging was added recently to signal bicycle friendliness. However, this is not the tag's definition.
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| way/238052318 Version 10 from 2022-10, Deep History |
Google Street View (Reminder: We cannot use this as a source to update OSM; we need our own ground truth for that.) | In 2022, a mass edit in Barcelona changed cycleway=shared_lane to cycleway=shared. Street-level imagery shows lane markings that fit the definition of shared_lane . More in this Forum Thread.
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Current Usage on Cycleways
- OSM Tag History: https://taghistory.raifer.tech/#***/cycleway/shared
- Screenshots of historic usage statistics from OHSOME are documented at https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/spain-spike-in-usage-of-cycleway-shared-in-2022-11/115322/1
- OverpassTurbo Link
Features/Pages Affected
- Update all
Key:cyclewayWiki pages to reflect the deprecation. - Update the OSM Wikidata item to mark the tag as deprecated.
- Request OSM editors to add deprecation rules that prompt reevaluation or replacement of the tag.
External Discussions
- This proposal emerged from discussions and deliberations in the Verkehrswende-Meetup.
- It was inspired by experiences with tagging in the Radverkehrsatlas project.
- Recent usage in Barcelona, Spain, was discussed in https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/spain-spike-in-usage-of-cycleway-shared-in-2022-11/115322/1.
Comments
Please comment on the community forum page.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The cycle quality index project: https://www.osm-verkehrswende.org/cqi/ demonstrates how different tags can be utilized to assess the bicycle friendliness of roads.