A bit late to the party on this one. But a couple of observations follow up Graeme's 2012-10-03 point about the myriad of "You can ride on a footpath if" exceptions and how to deal with them.

1) I suggest rigorously using and making synonymous footway=sidewalk [1] with what are clearly and unambivalently "road-related" areas in VIC [2] and NSW, i.e. generally urban footways that clearly (mostly) parallel a vehicular road with/without a nature strip and don't have any cycle signage. That throws the problem of exceptions on to router software, which I think is the right approach.

Perhaps emphasise this relationship in:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Australian_Tagging_Guidelines#Urban_Footpaths_and_Cycleways

2) However, this does create an un-level router playing field favouring the big boys. Sarah Hoffman raised the general issue at SOTM in her talk:

2021: Boundaries, Places and the Future of Tagging
Sarah Hoffman (keeper of Nominatum)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAzljx1ewZ0&list=PLQNy8KsDknCoq3AkVd5Nlgtwp1fnAWOcn&index=16

While she is talking about geocoding and all its local variations, her general point is that there is a layer of cultural and regulatory metadata which is missing from OpenStreetMap. This allows larger corporations to provide this and potentially "take over" OpenStreetMap by simply being able to offer a much better use-experience than the rest of us can by refining their software to take into account local needs. I am currently tasked along with Andy Allan of look at take over risks to the OpenStreetMap Foundation and will be adding this.

What I personally think we need is a completely separate open data-set that sets out to capture all this information basically on the premise "If you are in this polygon, then these rules apply" for language, access, addressing, whatever. It currently remains an I'd like to do this if I had time project, but if anyone is interested in working with me on it, let me know.

Mike

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:footway%3Dsidewalk


[2] Matthew Seale 2021-10-03:
"

The full version of the Victorian Road rules can be found here (or via the link from the VicRoads website)

https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/statutory-rules/road-safety-road-rules-2017/014H <https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/statutory-rules/road-safety-road-rules-2017/014H>

As noted in an earlier comment on this forum the Vic road rules apply in roads and road related areas – see rules 11-13.  Footpaths and nature strips adjacent to roads are considered a road related areas and are  subject to the footpath cycling restrictions in those areas.

However there does not appear to be any provision in the Victorian Road Rules that I can find to extend Victorian road rules to all unmarked (I.e. the vast majority) off-road and unsealed paths in Victoria away from roads. "



On 2021-10-03 07:08, Thorsten Engler via Talk-au wrote:

Ah, I now see there are subtle differences in the definition of “road related area” in Victoria and NSW…

While the NSW rules, as written, expand the definition of “road related area” to any public space which has as it’s primary purpose use by pedestrians, the Victoria rules do not seem to do that.

Though the Victoria version of the road rules includes this:

a place that is a road by virtue of a declaration under section 3(2)(a) of the Road Safety Act 1986

and if you follow that rabbit hole all the way down, you get to:

(2) The Governor in Council may by Order published in the Government Gazette-

  (a) declare any place or class of places, whether open to vehicles or not, to be or not to be a road or roads or a road related area or road related areas for the purposes of this Act;

Which means that to actually figure out what is a road or road related area in Victoria, someone will have to do an exhaustive search of the Government Gazette.

*From:*Matthew Seale <[email protected]>
*Sent:* Sunday, 3 October 2021 14:18
*To:* Sebastian Azagra <[email protected]>; [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [talk-au] Cycling on Victorian paths

The full version of the Victorian Road rules can be found here (or via the link from the VicRoads website)

https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/statutory-rules/road-safety-road-rules-2017/014H <https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/in-force/statutory-rules/road-safety-road-rules-2017/014H>

As noted in an earlier comment on this forum the Vic road rules apply in roads and road related areas – see rules 11-13.  Footpaths and nature strips adjacent to roads are considered a road related areas and are  subject to the footpath cycling restrictions in those areas.

However there does not appear to be any provision in the Victorian Road Rules that I can find to extend Victorian road rules to all unmarked (I.e. the vast majority) off-road and unsealed paths in Victoria away from roads.


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