CyclOSM is an OpenStreetMap rendering layer like the standard tile layer, but primarily aimed at showing information useful to cyclists. It is built thinking bicycle-first from the beginning.
The website www.cyclosm.org offers a demonstration of this map style, over the full planet and with minute updates thanks to the support of the French local chapter openstreetmap.fr. Tiles are rendered up to zoom level 20.
CyclOSM is a new cycle-oriented render. Contrary to OpenCycleMap, this render is free and open-source software and aims at being more complete to take into account a wider diversity of cycling habits.
In urban areas, it renders the main different types of cycle tracks and lanes, on each side of the road, for helping you draw your bike to work route. It also features essential POIs as well as bicycle parking spots or spots shared with motorbikes, specific infrastructure (elevators / ramps), road speeds or surfaces to avoid streets with pavings, bumpers and bike boxes, etc.
The same render also lets you visualize main bicycle touring routes as well as essential POIs when touring (emergency services, shelters, tourism, shops).
Key to the Map
Here is a quick introduction to the principles used to design the map. A full detailed key is available at cyclosm.org/legend.html.
Colors
Blue is for bikes
Green is for pedestrian and bikes
Brown is for pedestrian
Dark green is for agricultural roads
Red is forbidden or means danger
We then combine the colors for meaningful rendering. For instance, a shared bicycle / pedestrian path will be rendered in green + blue = cyan.
In the same way, directions of traffic are shown with arrows. A grey arrow for a one way street and a blue arrow in the other direction if bicycles can go counterflow.
Traffic and access
We want to provide information about motor vehicles traffic to be expected in some roads, having the assumption in mind that a side street with a low speed limit and very few motor vehicles can be a perfect fit for cycling, even though there is no dedicated infrastructure. Therefore, we render all the indications of traffic and access restrictions:
An highway with a maximum speed below 30 km/h will be drawn from cyan to green depending on the maximum speed.
A road with forbidden or limited motor vehicle access will be drawn in cyan or green as well.
Barriers and traffic calming infrastructure are rendered at high zooms.
Dashed lines for quality
We render the quality of an infrastructure with dashed lines.
We render bicycle touring routes at low zoom to help you plan holidays. As you zoom in, we fade them out to focus more on the underlying cycle infrastructure.
We try to fade out the main highway axes which can be useful to orient but cannot be used with a bicycle.
We render new features which were never rendered before, to help mappers tag. These include traffic calming infrastructure, bike boxes, bicycle-friendly elevators or steps with ramps, …
Waymarked Trails: CyclingbySarah Hoffman is an overlay which shows marked cycle routes around the world. Updated minutely, it renders actual routes without the state=proposed tag. Therefore no proposed routes (or proposed numbering protocols) are displayed. It is a good complement to the CyclOSM render.
