|route = bicycle|
|Cycle routes or bicycle route are named or numbered or otherwise signed routes. May go along roads, trails or dedicated cycle paths.|
|Used on these elements|
|Tools for this tag|
Bicycle routes or bike routes.
- 1 Rendered Cycle Maps
- 2 Tagging cycle route networks
- 3 Tagging cycle node networks
- 4 Relations
- 5 Mountainbike routes
- 6 Usage
- 6.1 Transnational
- 6.2 Australia
- 6.3 Austria
- 6.4 Belgium
- 6.5 Baltic States: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
- 6.6 Canada
- 6.7 Czech Republic
- 6.8 Denmark
- 6.9 France
- 6.10 Finland
- 6.11 Germany
- 6.12 Hungary
- 6.13 Iceland
- 6.14 Italy
- 6.15 Netherlands
- 6.16 Norway
- 6.17 Slovakia
- 6.18 Spain
- 6.19 Sweden
- 6.20 Switzerland
- 6.21 United Kingdom
- 6.22 United States
- 7 Related pages
Rendered Cycle Maps
Just looking for bicycle maps and bike maps?
| international cycling map created from OSM data is available, provided by Andy Allan. The map rendering is still being improved, the data are updated every few days. It shows National Cycle Network cycle routes, other regional and local routes, and other cycling-specific features, such as:
|Lonvia's Cycling Map by Sarah Hoffman is an overlay which shows marked cycle routes around the world. Updated daily, it renders actual routes without the state=proposed tag. Therefore no proposed routes (or numbering protocols) are displayed.|
Tagging cycle route networks
Four levels of hierarchy are currently in use: international, national, regional, and local. Routes may be marked by tagging each way according to the following table. For an alternative using relations that will also be rendered on the cycle map, see Relations/Routes#Cycle routes (also mountain bike).
It is often better to use relations to tag cycle routes rather than the tags in this table (see below for the relation tagging scheme). But please check that a relation doesn't already exist before creating one.
|icn=yes||Designates that a road or path is part of an International Cycling Network route.|
|ncn=yes||Designates that a road or path is part of a National Cycling Network route.|
|ncn=proposed||Designates that a road or path is part of a proposed National Cycling Network route.|
|rcn=yes / proposed||As above, but for regional cycle routes.|
|lcn=yes / proposed||As above, but for local cycle routes.|
|icn_ref=number||A international cycle route, where number is the route number. icn=yes is implied|
|ncn_ref=number||A national cycle route, where number is the route number. ncn=yes is implied|
|rcn_ref=number||A regional cycle route, where number is the route number. rcn=yes is implied|
|lcn_ref=number||A local cycle route, where number is the route number. lcn=yes is implied|
Tagging cycle node networks
Cycle node networks (for example look here) are common in the Netherlands and Belgium, but not in the UK. In contrast to the standard cycle route networks, where the path has a reference number, in a cycle node network the junctions are numbered. Signs along the way indicate the junction you are heading towards, so a given path will have a sign pointing in one direction indicating "1" and in the other direction indicating "4".
We use the same tags, but apply the reference numbers to the junction nodes. The same principles could in principle be used for national and local cycle node networks, but currently regional is in main use in both Belgium and The Netherlands.
|rcn=yes||Designates that a road or path is part of a Regional cycle node network|
|rcn_ref=number||Designates that the node represents a numbered junction in the regional cycle node network|
Please refer to the pages below for country specific details:
An expanded way of tagging cycle node networks, which is currently already being employed in parts of Belgium and The Netherlands, is described at Cycle Node Network Tagging.
It is preferred to tag the cycle routes using relations instead of tagging the ways. But please check that a relation doesn't already exist for your chosen route before creating one. Links to country-specific overview pages of cycle networks are below.
The tags on the relation are slightly modified from the standard tags. An example cycle route relation would have the following tags:
|route=bicycle/mtb||See mountainbike for details on tagging mountainbike routes.|
|network=icn/ncn/rcn/lcn||Specify the network as an international route, a national route, a regional route, or a local route, as per the normal tagging of cycle routes. For tagging mountainbike routes more specific look here mountainbike|
|cycle_network=*||(optional) In countries that have (for instance) multiple regional route networks, this tag indicates the specific route system, much the way network=* does on road route relations.|
|ref=number||(optional) NCN, RCN, and LCN references work best on the map if just the number is used, so for NCN 4: "4". The network or cycle_network tag correctly distinguishes the type, so just use "ref" and not "ncn_ref" or similar.|
|name=*||(optional) The name of the route e.g. Jubilee Cycle Way|
|state=proposed||(optional) Routes are sometimes not official routes pending some negotiation or development -- the opencyclemap rendering shows these routes dotted.|
|distance=distance in km||(optional) The distance covered by a route in km|
|ascent=ascent in m||(optional) The ascent covered by a route in meters. If a route has start and end point at different altitude use descent too|
|descent=descent in m||(optional) The descent covered by a route in meters. Use it only if it differs from the ascent (different altitude at start/endpoint of a route).|
|roundtrip=yes/no||(optional) Use roundtrip=no to indicate that a route goes from A to B. Use roundtrip=yes to indicate that the start and finish of the route are at the same location (circular route).|
Relation role: Cycle routes sometimes have different paths depending on the direction you are travelling. In this case, ways in the relation should have a role of forward or backward as described in Relation:route#Members. The direction is rendered on the cycle map (example).
- See Mountainbiketours for cycle routes that are primarily for mountainbikes.
- Additionally, have a look at the Mountainbike portal for tagging guidelines to ways suitable for mountainbiking.
Since the tagging is generic, it is up to each country to decide how to map the cycle networks that exist in their country onto the hierarchy of national/regional/local.
The EuroVelo (wikipedia) network consists of 13 routes, with a total distance of 72,978 km, developed by the European Cyclists' Federation. The route references are in the format EVxy, e.g. EV12 for the North Sea Cycle Route.
See the European Wikiproject EuroVelo for further details.
The Greenway Project aims to build an international network of bicycle and other non-motorized trails focussed on Eastern European countries. The motivation is to provide local people and visitors with access to natural and cultural heritage areas.
See the European Wikiproject Greenways for further details.
See: Western Australia
Baltic States: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
The project BaltiCCycle.eu collects all information on cycling in the Baltic States (BaltiCCycle.eu_Routes)including the International Routes EuroVelo, R1, Iron Curtain Trail, the National Cycling Routes in Estonia (EstoVelo)
See DE:Bicycle/Fahrradroutensammlungen for overview of German cycle route collections.
See WikiProject Hungary/Kerékpárút for overview of Hungarian cycle route collections.
See WikiProject Iceland/Cycleways for an overview of Icelandic cycle routes and ways.
See WikiProject Italy/Ciclovie for an overview of Italian cycle route collections.
See Slovak Cycling Routes for full details.
See Spanish Cycling Network for full details.
See Swedish Cycling Network for full details.
CycleStreets has produced a fully-designed and downloadable ['Get mapping' guide], with particular focus on adding data for improving bicycle routing.
|Sustrans' National Cycle Network National routes (red numbers). See WikiProject United Kingdom National Cycle Network for a list and to see if a relation has already been set up. References shouldn't be given a prefix i.e. use 54 and not N54. Remember to map the mileposts too - see WikiProject_United_Kingdom_Sustrans_Mileposts.||Add to an existing relation or create a new relation or use ncn=*, ncn_ref=*|
|Sustrans' National Cycle Network Regional routes (blue numbers). See WikiProject United Kingdom National Cycle Network too for a list and to see if a relation has already been set up. References shouldn't be given a prefix i.e. use 47 and not R47.||Add to an existing relation or create a new relation or use rcn=*, rcn_ref=*|| |
(Sign showing both national and regional spur).
|LCC's London Cycle Network. See WikiProject United Kingdom London Cycle Network.||lcn=*, lcn_ref=*|
|Ipswich, other towns etc. local cycle networks||lcn=*, lcn_ref=*|
|The National Byway|| network=rcn
See National Byway.
|The Pennine Bridleway, a 209 km route parallel to the Pennine Way hiking trail|
|The Scottish Borders region has several signed long distance routes: the Border Loop (402 km), North Sea Cycle Route, Southern Borders Loop, 4 Abbeys Cycle route, Tweed Cycleway. There is also a signed local network depicted by coloured circles|| Border Loop
- Bicycle tags on OSM A slippy map that renders cycling related OSM tags
- Cheltenham Standard - a discussion of how to tag the suitability for cycles of all-purpose roads
- reference=* - motor vehicle routes
- WikiProject Europe/EuroVelo