This is a transcript of the conversation that Steve All and I had in private messages, published with his permission.

I believe that this conversation contains some valuable information for those who want to map bicycle routes and mountain bike routes in countries other than USA.

From broadway_lamb 9 March 2021 at 18:33

Hello,

I can see that you are the one who created the GDMBR route relation.

I was wondering whether that route is somehow marked, and if it’s not, what is the policy regarding mapping non-marked mountain bike routes? I can’t find any info on the wiki.

The thing is that I was going to map a similar mountain bike route in Russia, but the local community members told me that only those routes that are somehow marked should be mapped.

Could you please give me some advice?

From stevea 9 March 2021 at 19:06

On 2021-03-09 18:33:14 UTC broadway_lamb wrote:

I can see that you are the one who created the GDMBR route relation.

Thank you for reaching out to me, that is very polite in OSM!

The route known as GDMBR has a long and storied history in OSM. As you can see by its cycle_network tag (US:ACA), it is a route by ACA, the Adventure Cycle Association, a bicycle advocacy organization in the USA which promotes long-distance bicycle touring. ACA has developed a national-scope bicycle network of about two dozen named (not numbered) routes. These route data are private (proprietary / copyrighted by ACA), so their entry into OSM violates our ODbL. However, some cyclists captured GPS data while riding, so for a very few of their routes (3 or so) pieces of these routes (or in the case of GDMBR, the whole of it) are in OSM, and so far it’s “OK” for us to do this, although we shouldn’t make a habit of it, lest we anger ACA.

I was wondering whether that route is somehow marked, and if it’s not, what is the policy regarding mapping non-marked mountain bike routes? I can’t find any info on the wiki.

… See full entry