WikiProject Thailand
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Note to companies or organizations planning to do a mapping project in Thailand If you plan a mapping project in Thailand, please contact the community in the forum beforehand. We can discuss your mapping ideas and point to things to consider. We offer our help to make OSM even more successful. When deriving features from imagery it is crucial to check the alignment beforehand against multiple sources. If you consider mapping building footprints, it is important to create correct geometries, like right-angled walls and align with imagery. You also have to do some quality control and mentoring when bringing in large amounts of inexperienced mappers. Also take note of the Organised Editing Guidelines. |
V・T・E Thailand, Asia  |
| latitude: 13.0, longitude: 101.5 |
| Browse map of Thailand 13°00′00.00″ N, 101°30′00.00″ E |
| Edit map |
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External links:
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| Use this template for your city |
Thailand is a Country in Asia at latitude 13°00′00.00″ North, longitude 101°30′00.00″ East.
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Community
There are some users in Thailand, add your own username if you map in Thailand by adding the following category to your user page (you can add your town or city at the same time). [[Category:Users in Thailand|name]]
There is an internet forum (message board) and a Facebook group for people in Thailand where you can talk with others about all things regarding OpenStreetMap (OSM) and in particular about mapping in Thailand. In this forum you can write your posts either in Thai language or in English language. If you have any questions about OpenStreetMap in Thailand, feel free to ask there. Proposals for this page can be added on the WikiProject Thailand Drafts page and discussed in the forum.
A nice tool from geofabrik labs was used to generate an animated gif of Thailand. It shows the progress of OSM in Thailand. A big THANK YOU to the community for making that huge progress. Keep on the good work.
Projects
Territory based projects
- Bangkok - Capital city and largest of Thailand's city by far -- many missing streets around the city
- Phang Nga - Province in the South West. Some people interested in this area
- Chiang Mai - Province in the North and the 2nd largest city of Thailand
- Phuket - Island province to the South of Thailand -- many missing streets around the city
For a list of Nakhon (City), Mueang (Town) and Tambon (Subdistrict) see Wikipedia: List of cities in Thailand
Other projects
- Remote Surveys - Project for collaborative surveys of cities in Thailand
- /Protected areas — This subpage is for listing sources for and tracking the mapping progress of national parks and other protected areas.
Conventions
The user-base in Thailand is growing therefore we need to start coordinating.
As OpenStreetMap is a wiki-like project, every user is basically free to choose whatever tags he likes. Over the time some key/value pairs had become standard in the way to tag things. These are documented in the wiki, a good starting point is the Map Features page.
For Thailand some specialties exist in how to tag things here. This page lists only the things that are handled special in Thailand.
When conventions are final they will appear on this page, if they are still under discussion they will be listed on the Talk page.
Multilingual names
The maps Mapnik and Osmarender at OpenStreetMap.org use name=* e.g. the local names for rendering. There are maps available where the language can be chosen:
- Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam: Billingual, local (e.g. Thai) and English
Background according to Wikipedia:
- "In linguistics, romanization or latinization, alternately spelt as latinisation or romanisation (see spelling differences), is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system (or none). Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word." Reference: wikipedia: Romanization.
- "The Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS) is the official system for rendering Thai language words in the Latin alphabet, published by The Royal Institute of Thailand. It is used in road signs and government publications, and is the closest thing to a standard of transcription for Thai, though its use by even the government is inconsistent." References: wikipedia: Royal Thai General System of Transcription and wikipedia: ISO 11940.
How to get the transcription of names:
- Collect it from signs when collecting data. Map users will compare to signs.
- Wikipedia, other sources on the internet or for names of administrative organisations Office of the Royal Society: Changwat, Amphoe, Tambon, Khet and Khweng Name. The Department of Local Administration: Local Administrative Organization's English Name
- Use the program for Windows Chulalongkorn University: Thai Romanization Program.
- Transcribe yourself according to wikipedia: Royal Thai General System of Transcription.
Tagging example:
- name=ภูเก็ต. Local language Thai. Note: There's an ongoing discussion in regard to brand names
- name:th=ภูเก็ต. Thai.
- name:en=Phuket. "Romanization".
The renderer can create maps in one or two languages:
- Thai only: e.g. ภูเก็ต
- English only: e.g. Phuket
- Bilingual: e.g. ภูเก็ต Phuket just by using the name and the name:en value.
People who can read Thai will prefer the names in Thai due to reasons discussed in wikipedia: Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS). Other people will prefer the transcription of names in Roman characters. When using the map and comparing names to signs or when asking Thai people for help a bilingual map is convenient.
In cases where the Thai romanization is different from the English name, the RTGS transcription can be placed in the name:th-Latn=* tag. This might not be necessary, as theoretically it would be possible for the renderer to automatically generate such romanizations. However, the accuracy of such software is still quite limited, especially with proper names.
- name=จังหวัดภูเก็ต
- name:en=Phuket Province
- name:th-Latn=Changwat Phuket
Highway classification
Intercity
| Official classification | Reference number | OSM tagging
Typical examples |
Description, comments | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Expressway (ทางพิเศษ) | 
N/A |
highway=motorway | Roads tagged as motorway should be controlled-access highways. They do not provide access to properties, and are not accessible to motorcycles or pedestrians. They are often tolled.
There are two systems of controlled-access highways in Thailand: the motorway and the expressway. |
|
| Motorway (ทางหลวงพิเศษ) | 
One or two digits, beginning with 5–9 | |||
7, 9 |
highway=trunk | Green-background signs denote routes which are legally designated as motorways but currently lack full access control. They are usually accessible to motorcycles, and may provide access to adjacent properties. They should be tagged as highway=trunk (see below). | 
| |
| National Highway (ทางหลวงแผ่นดิน) | 
One digit, beginning with 1–4 |
Trunk classification should be applied to region's top-level road network (apart from motorways), which connects numerous cities and is usually dual carriageway.
Most, but not all, of the 1-2-digit national highways are trunk. Examples are
| ||
Two digits, beginning with 1–4 | ||||
| highway=primary |
Primary roads are built for long-distance travel, typically beyond province borders. Most, but not all, of the 3-digit national highways are primary. Examples are
|
| ||
Three digits, beginning with 1–4 | ||||
Four digits, beginning with 1–4 |
highway=secondary | Secondary roads are major roads inside a province.
Examples are
Most 4-digit national highways are secondary, however they can be primary or tertiary depending on their importance in the road network. The high importance rural roads, which are on the same level as a 4-digit national highway in the road network, are also secondary. |
| |
| Rural Road (ทางหลวงชนบท) | 
Two-letter province code and four digits | |||
highway=tertiary
|
Tertiary roads connect two or more villages/hamlets.
Examples are
Note that the Rural Road classification is based on authority rather than importance. They might be classified as secondary or tertiary depending on their importance. Some of the roads on this level are managed by a Local Administrative Organization. They are also tertiary regardless of an authority. Rural roads should be tagged with ref=pf.nnnn where pf is the provincial prefix in Thai characters, followed by a dot, followed by the numerical portion of the reference number. There should be no spaces in the ref tag value. Local roads should be tagged with ref=pf.ถ nn-nnn with a space after ถ and a hyphen at the correct position. |
|||
| Local Road (ทางหลวงท้องถิ่น) | 
Two-letter province code with ถ and five digits (usually not signposted) | |||
| highway=unclassified | The lowest rank of a public road usable by motor cars.
Typically unclassified roads in Thailand are the roads having no designated number and connect villages to major highways. Unclassified is used for minor public roads typically at the lowest level of the interconnecting grid network. Unclassified roads have lower importance in the road network than tertiary roads, and are not residential streets or agricultural tracks. |
|||
| Others | Others |
Urban and Local Road wide enough for motor cars
| OSM tag | Description, comments | Photo |
|---|---|---|
| highway=motorway | Expressway (ทางพิเศษ) with full access control. | |
| highway=trunk | Not to use. | |
| highway=primary | Top-level urban road across the city connecting trunk to trunk, or road of equal or greater importance than the primary intercity highway that runs through that city. | |
| highway=secondary | Main urban road connecting primary to primary or higher, or road of equal or greater importance than the secondary intercity highway that runs through that city. | |
| highway=tertiary | Roads that are more important than regular unclassified or residential roads, or roads that connect several unclassified or residential roads. | |
| highway=unclassified | The lowest rank of public road accessible to motor car for through traffic or outside of a residential area. Also used for the main throughfare in an industrial estate or a university campus. | |
| highway=residential | The lowest rank of public road accessible by motor car in a residential area, often lined with a residential property, and rarely used for through traffic. At least a motor car can easily pass. Also used for roads within a gated housing estate. | |
| highway=service | A road used to access to an estate, parking, or a specific part of large private area such as an industrial estate or university campus. | |
| highway=service + service=driveway | A service road leading to a specific building, residence, property or place of business.
For example, each house's private road that branches off the residential road. |
|
| highway=service + service=alley | A narrow service road usually located between the rear sides of buildings to provide access to utilities such as back gardens, rear entrances, fire exits, and storage areas.
These tags should not be used for narrow residential roads that provide access to the front entrances of buildings. |
|
| highway=track | Roads for mostly agricultural or forestry uses. This tag should not be used on unpaved roads that provide access to permanent human settlements or facilities. | |
| highway=living_street | Not to use. There is currently no legislation in Thailand granting lower speed limit and pedestrians the right of way over other road users in residential areas. | |
| Others | See highway=* |
Urban and Local Road that a motor car cannot pass
| OSM tag | Description, comments | Photo |
|---|---|---|
| highway=path+ motorcycle=yes
or highway=path+ motorcycle=designated (if signposted) |
Narrow way which a motorcar can't pass. Motorcycles are permitted or commonly used by locals. | |
| highway=footway | Minor pathways that are used mainly or exclusively by pedestrians.
For example, designated footpaths in urban and attraction areas, mountain trails that are only suitable for walking. |
|
| Others | See highway=* |
- The table shows the classification of the highways used in Thailand for OSM and typical tagging examples. It follows the numbering scheme issued by the Thai authorities. (But over time e.g. a three-digit highway may become in total or in sections the importance and the standard of a one- or two-digit (trunk) highway. In these cases all or larger sections of this highway can be classified higher. The same applies for urban highways. An unclassified highway without number can be classified tertiary.)
- Concession highway (ทางหลวงสัมปทาน) is an administrative classification. Classification should follow the road's importance.
- In some cases a section of a trunk or primary road that crosses an urban area has lost its role as the fastest route due to a newer road around that urban area. In those cases the bypassed section can be classified lower and the newer and faster way around be upgraded to the bypassed section's former classification.
- A national highway or a rural road that passes through a city is frequently transferred to the Local Administrative Organization. These highways should still be tagged according to their previous administrative classification.
- Hanging ends should be avoid if possible. For example, if two primary roads from outside arrive at opposite points in the same city, both ends should be connected by upgrading the urban road between them to primary, even if it is not qualified in most cases.
- Frontage roads should be one rank lower than main roads and not higher than secondary.
- The top-level urban roads in each settlement should not be tagged higher than any intercity roads that lead to that settlement.
- Highway tag values that are not mentioned here should adhere to OpenStreetMap's general guidelines.
Rough guidelines for minor highway tag decision-making (useful in most cases)
- is the road wide enough for motor cars?
yes: is the road exclusively for pedestrians?yes: highway=pedestrianno: is the road within a private property/estate/facility?yes: is the road within a gated housing community?yes: highway=residentialno: is the road within a large property/estate/facility and frequently used as through traffic?
no: is the road frequently used as through traffic or to reach a non-residential/farming destination (attraction, hotel, temple...) ?yes: highway=unclassifiedno: is the main purpose of the road access to forestry/agricultural fields?yes: highway=trackno: is the main purpose of the road access to permanent residences?yes: highway=residentialno: best to not map it you are not sure of its classification. If you are forced to tag the road even without knowing the proper classification, mark it as highway=road.
no: is the path only suitable for walking (e.g. sidewalk, golf course footpath, attraction walkway, hiking trails…) ?
Note regarding highway route numbers
The first digit of national highway and motorway route numbers follows the region of Thailand the route primary links to: 1 and 5 for the North, 2 and 6 for the Northeast, 3 and 7 for the central region, 4 and 8 for the South, and 9 for the Bangkok ring road. (The motorway system currently only consists of routes 7 and 9, so route numbers beginning 5, 6 and 8 don't yet exist.) (See also the Thai highway network article on Wikipedia.)
Rural road numbers consist of a two-letter province abbreviation followed by four digits. The first digit indicates the level of highway the road connects to, while the remaining three digits are provincial index numbers. Therefore the first digit may be changed following changes to the connecting highway, while the last tree digits generally remain the same. The numbering system for the first digit is: 1 indicates a connection to 1-digit national highways, and likewise for 2, 3 and 4; 5 indicates a connection to other rural roads or local highways, and 6 indicates the road connects to places without forming part of a larger network.
Occasionally one may come across roads bearing reference numbers that include two-letter province abbreviations, but don't otherwise conform to the rural road numbering system or aren't found in the Department of Rural Road's index (see #Official sources below). These are usually outdated reference numbers belonging to the Public Works Department or the Office of Accelerated Rural Development, which were responsible for the roads before they were transferred to Department of Rural Roads in 2002. These outdated numbers may be qualified by the words โยธาธิการ (ยธ.) or เร่งรัดพัฒนาชนบท (รพช.), respectively.
References
- Map Features #Highway
- Highway tag usage
- Tagging samples/out of town
- Tagging samples/urban
- Asia/Asian Highway Network
Fuel stations
Use amenity=fuel to tag the location. The name is going to name=*, name:en=*, name:th=* respective operator=*, operator:en=*, operator:th=*. Some, may be the most common fuel stations are:
- PTT ป ต ท
- Bangchak บางจาก
- PT พีที
- Caltex คาลเท็กซ์
- Esso เอสโซ่
- Shell เซลล์
- SUSCO Siam United Services Public Company Limited สยามสหบริการมหาชน จำกัด
- Worldgas เวิลด์แก๊ส (LPG)
The fuel types can be tagged as described here Tag:amenity=fuel.
Waterways
Besides the tags listed in Map Features the following tagging is common in Thailand. Try adding width=* to specify the width of the waterway.
| Tag | Element | Natural waterways | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|
| waterway=riverbank | 
|
Used for larger rivers (more than 12m wide), to define an area between the opposite riverbanks. |  |
| waterway=river | 
|
Larger river, แม่น้ำ (Mae Nam). Typically wider than 5m. If the waterway is smaller than you should consider using waterway=stream instead. |  |
| waterway=stream |
|
Naturally formed waterway. Typically smaller than 2m, but can be used up to 5m (e.g. if the water is not deep and people can walk through it). |  |
| Tag | Element | Man-made waterways | Photo |
| waterway=canal |
|
If the name of the waterway contains the word "Khlong" (Thai: คลอง) or if it looks like a typical canal or khlong we should tag it as "canal". Add boat=* where appropriate. |  |
| waterway=ditch |
|
If the waterway is significant smaller than a typical canal (less than ), chances are good that it is a "ditch". |  |
| waterway=drain |
|
If it is made out of concrete (คอนกรีต) or build from other hard materials, it is maybe a "drain". A drain does not nessessarily contain water all the time. In dry seasons it could be dry and only be filled while it is raining! If the width exceeds and the drain does contain water most of the time consider using waterway=canal instead. |  |
Administrative levels
In Thailand there are 2 systems, the provincial and the local administration. References: wikipedia: Administrative divisions of Thailand and Thailand subforum.
The provincial administration is hierarchical and centrally controlled by Department of Provincial Administration and Ministry of Interior:
- Kingdom of Thailand > province > district > subdistrict > village
- Ratcha-anachak Thai > changwat > amphoe > tambon > muban
- ราชอาณาจักรไทย > จังหวัด > อำเภอ > ตำบล > หมู่บ้าน).
The local administration is administrated locally under the support of Department of Local Administration:
- provincial administrative organization (PAO), องค์การบริหารส่วนจังหวัด (อบจ.): same boundary as province.
- municipality (thetsaban, เทศบาล) has 3 classes:
- city municipality (thetsaban nakhon, เทศบาลนคร (ทน.))
- town municipality (thetsaban mueang, เทศบาลเมือง (ทม.))
- subdistrict municipality (thetsaban tambon, เทศบาลตำบล (ทต.)).
- A municipality can cover
- a whole district, e.g. wikipedia: Ko Samui;
- a district partially;
- a whole subdistrict, e.g. the city Khon Kaen covers the whole subdistrict Nai Mueang (wikipedia: Amphoe Mueang Khon Kaen);
- parts of more than one subdistrict, e.g. wikipedia: Nakhon Phanom;
- a subdistrict partially.
- in very rare cases can cover area from two districts
- subdistrict administrative organization (SAO), องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล (อบต.)
- can cover one or more adjoining subdistricts in the same district, also subdistricts partially if area shared with a municipality.
- community (chumchon, ชุมชน)
- is administrated by a municipality and can be the same size or smaller than a prior village.
References: wikipedia: Thesaban and wikipedia: List of cities in Thailand.
There are two special cases:
- Bangkok
- is divided into districts (khet, เขต) which are further subdivided into subdistricts (khwaeng, แขวง) and communities (chumchon, ชุมชน).
- is a local administrative organization with no provincial administration. Local administrative organization are responsible for all provincial responsibilities.
- Pattaya City
- located in Amphoe Bang Lamung. Equivalent to the city municipality. The difference is minor, and it only affects a small portion of the administrative organization.
The table shows the values for Key:admin_level and for Key:place. Municipality extends in parallel to subdistrict and may be more or less than one subdistrict. 11 administrative levels are used. The table lists the terms for the administrative units in English, Romanized Thai and Thai.
| Country | Administration | Administrative levels admin_level=* and place=* | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | ||
 Thailand English / Romanized Thai / ไทย |
Provincial Administration / Kan Pokkhrong Suan Phumiphak / การปกครองส่วนภูมิภาค | N/A | Kingdom of Thailand / Ratcha-anachak Thai / ราชอาณาจักรไทย | N/A | Province / Changwat / จังหวัด place=province | N/A | District / Amphoe / อำเภอ place=district | N/A | Subdistrict / Tambon / ตำบล | N/A | Village / Muban / หมู่บ้าน place=village | N/A |
| Local Administration / Kan Pokkhrong Suan Thongthin / การปกครองส่วนท้องถิ่น | (not to be tagged) | N/A | Subdistrict Administrative Organization (SAO) / Ongkan Borihan Suan Tambon (O Bo To) / องค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล (อบต.) place=county | N/A | ||||||||
(see note)
|
Khwaeng / Khwaeng / แขวง place=suburb | (see note) | Community / Chumchon / ชุมชน place=neighbourhood | |||||||||
| Bangkok Metropolitan Administration / Krung Thep Maha Nakhon / กรุงเทพมหานคร | Bangkok / Krung Thep Maha Nakhon / กรุงเทพมหานคร place=city | District / Khet / เขต place=suburb | N/A | Subdistrict / Khwaeng / แขวง place=quarter | N/A | |||||||
- The place=* should only be used on nodes. It can be linked to the equivalent boundary=administrative by adding it to the boundary's relation with the role=label.
- Please note that most new municipalities, that have recently been upgraded from the SAO, are still in rural areas and should not be tagged as place=city or place=town. If communities have yet to be established, implying that the villages are still fully functional, the municipality should be tagged as place=municipality instead, while the villages should still be tagged as place=village. If communities have already been established, then change the municipality to place=city or place=town, and change the place=village to recently established communities' place=neighbourhood.
- place=neighbourhood can be applied to any urban area with a name, whether it is an officially recognized community or not.
- All boundary=administrative name tags should have a prefix (Thai) or suffix (English), but not all place=*. Only the node of provincial administration (place=province, place=district, and place=village) should be prefixed or suffixed. However, some place=neighbourhood should be tagged with prefix or suffix (ชุมชน / Community) if they used the name of a specific place, such as the temple, as the community's name, to differentiate them.
- The level-10 boundary=administrative's name tag should be หมู่ที่ xx / Mu xx, whereas place=village's name tag should be บ้าน xx / Ban xx.
- People should be able to recognize the name tag of place=city and place=town. If no one uses the official name, such as the community or the business's branch, the more common name should be used instead.
- The level-10 boundary=administrative should not be removed as soon as the communities are established, because it may still be used for house addresses. Before removing it, ensure that the house address has already been changed to use a street instead.
- In some subdistrict, there may be more than one village with the same name because they are split for administrative purposes. In this case, they should be represented by a single place=village node.
- Because of the small population in some remote areas, some distinct settlements may exist that are not recognized by the authorities (they are recognized as a part of nearby village). In this case, place=hamlet is appropriate.
Addresses
In Thailand addresses general consist of
| Term | Example | Tag | Photo | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Romanized Thai | Thai | English | Romanized Thai | Thai | addr=* | |
| housenumber | Lekthi Ban | เลขที่บ้าน | 85/1 | 85/1 | 85/1 | addr:housenumber=* | 
|
| street | Thanon / Soi / Trok | ถนน / ซอย / ตรอก | Tiwanon Road | Thanon Tiwanon | ถนนติวานนท์ | addr:street=* * | |
| village | Muban (Mu Thi) | หมู่บ้าน (หมู่ที่) | Mu 2 | Mu Thi 2 | หมู่ที่ 2 | addr:place=* * | |
| subdistrict | Tambon | ตำบล | Bang Talat Subdistrict | Tambon Bang Talat | ตำบลบางตลาด | addr:subdistrict=* | |
| district | Amphoe | อำเภอ | Pak Kret District | Amphoe Pak Kret | อำเภอปากเกร็ด | addr:district=* | |
| province | Changwat | จังหวัด | Nonthaburi Province | Changwat Nonthaburi | จังหวัดนนทบุรี | addr:province=* | |
| postal code | Rahat Praisani | รหัสไปรษณีย์ | 11120 | 11120 | 11120 | addr:postcode=* | |
It should be noted that depending on the area, either addr:place=* or addr:street=* is used, and both should not be used together.
Data sources
Aerial imagery
In addition to a survey with GPS one may also use some aerial images if available with a suitable license.
Landsat provides low-resolution satellite imagery of the whole country and is available with different image modes.
While Bing aerial imagery is available in many parts of the world and is the default layer in ID editor, it can be very outdated in rural areas of Thailand (often +5 years).
A recommended alternative with more recent imagery is Maxar and ESRI.
 | Pay attention to a possible misalignment of aerial and Landsat imagery. Always verify alignment with GPS tracks and realign images when needed. |
Official sources
Legislation and other official proclamations by the Royal Thai Government are exempt from copyright protection. Maps accompanying documents published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette (available at http://mratchakitcha.soc.go.th/ ) may be useful as sources for manual tracing (e.g. of national parks).
GIS data is available from several government agencies, but are presumed to be protected by copyright and unsuitable for import.
The Department of Highways provides a publicly accessible database of national highways at http://roadnet.doh.go.th. As above, the data is considered unsuitable for systematic import, but is useful as a source for confirmation of data and quality assurance.
The Department of Rural Roads publishes indices of rural highways at http://maintenance.drr.go.th/th/DRR. They include route numbers and names (which typically describe the route's start and end points), location, length, and start and end coordinates (although the coordinates appear quite unreliable).
The local highway registry is available at http://lmp.drr.go.th/lmp/waydata/main.html.
Quality Control
Bicycling tagging (currently for Chiang Mai only)
There are many cyclists in Chiang Mai, but almost no officially signposted cycleways or -routes exist. There have recently been some efforts from the Chiang Mai cycling community to collect information about common routes used by cyclists. For this, we tried to figure out how to use OSM conventions to mark roads as cycling routes. This could be a proposal for a convention to establish cycling routes in Chiang Mai and maybe other regions in Thailand.
Objective tags
The following tags should always be considered, because they can be easily verified on the ground and are also used by most cycling routing engines:
- key:highway: the lower the road class, the lesser traffic and lower speeds can be expected, e.g. highway=unclassified or residential would be more suitable for cycling than highway=primary or secondary etc.
- key:lanes: lanes=1 normally best suited for cycling, because less traffic can be assumed than on roads with >1 lane
- key:surface: if the road is paved or not makes a big difference for cycling and should therefore be included in cycling related editing
Others
- key:maxspeed: rarely signposted in Thailand
- key:bicycle: only refers to the legal (e.g. signposted) access for bicycles on roads. It is therefore not a measure for the suitability for cycling
Subjective tags (no ground truthing possible)
Subjective tags can help to give more in-depth information about the cycling suitability of a road, which cannot be determined by the objective tags alone. They should only be used if the user has a good local knowledge.
- class:bicycle tags (derived from class:bicycle#Values):
- class:bicycle=1: Prefer (decent car traffic, but still better than other roads, or road is not in a good condition like dirt road with holes)
- class:bicycle=2: Very Nice way to cycle
- class:bicycle=3: This way is so nice, it pays out to make a detour also if this means taking many unsuitable ways to get here. Outstanding for its intended usage class.
- class:bicycle=-2: Only use to reach your destination, not well suited (e.g. big junctions, but have to be passed to connect to another calmer road).
- key:scenic: If the scenery of a specific part of the road is remarkably beautiful, this key can help to rank the amenity of a cycling-suitable road.
Proposing routes: key:lcn
In order to propose possible cycling routes (local and regional) for a cycle-route network, the key:lcn or key:rcn tags can be helpful. Furthermore, the cycling roads will also be rendered on the OSM-cyclemap[1], which is also being used on the main openstreetmap.org "Cycle Map" layer.
- key:lcn=proposed (for local routes, e.g. inside the city bounds)
- key:rcn=proposed (for regional routes, e.g. to other districts/provinces)
The key-value would be 'proposed' for now, since these routes are not officially designated. Routes should only be proposed if they have been tested on the ground and/or been agreed on by the local cycling community.
If there are any designated routes (not existing in Chiang Mai yet), of course they should be tagged as lcn=yes / rcn=yes.