I am embarking on a project documenting and updating bike lanes throughout Melbourne, and eventually Victoria, in as much detail as possible. This work draws on a range of sources including aerial imagery, street-level imagery, local surveys, other OSM users, and input from councils. I am drawing on global tagging conventions, and other tagging schemes developed specifically for detailed documentation of cycling infrastructure such as here and here.

In the first iteration I will capture the most basic attributes, such as whether a lane exists and if so, what basic category, e.g. exclusive, advisory, shared, separated, etc. If a survey reveals no lane, I mark the way explicitly as cycleway:side=no. Otherwise, the type of lane is captured using cycleway:side=? and cycleway:side:lane=? (side = both/left/right, depending on the way). See this tagging guide for specifics.

This step in itself is quite a large undertaking, and I’m finding even this basic categorisation can be somewhat subjective in cases where cycle lanes haven’t been properly maintained or markings are particularly sparse or unclear. I will post some examples of these edge cases in due course.

Note that where a cycleway tag already exists on a way, but I cannot validate its accuracy, I will not remove the tag. I will only update existing tags if I can confirm the tagging is incorrect, outdated, or could benefit from more detail (such as specifying :side and/or :lane).

Following this, I intend to add additional attributes such as lane width, buffers, separation type, traffic calming, etc. as well as updating the off-road network. This work aims to support better city planning, journey planning and cycle route suggestions across the state.

I have nearly completed the first sweep of City of Melbourne, City of Darebin, and City of Casey and am currently in the process of validating this with these councils.

… See full entry