Tag:bicycle=use_sidepath

This tag bicycle=use_sidepath applies only to roads with a classification that allows cycling generally. When a road has a parallel compulsory cycleway (e.g. (DE, PL), (DE, FI, IT, PL), (NL) or (several European countries) this tag can be applied. But only when this road does not have a traffic sign which explicitly forbids bicycling (e.g. or ). In that case use bicycle=no.

The tag bicycle=use_sidepath should only be applied in countries that have compulsory cycleways.

Please do not use bicycle=use_sidepath in combination with cycleway=track or cycleway=lane on the main highway, if there is no separate cycleway drawn on the map.
This is confusing for routing engines because bicycle=use_sidepath indicates not to route on the main highway (use the separate cycleway) and this conflicts with the tags cycleway=track and cycleway=lane, which indicates that bicycles are allowed to route on (bike lanes connected to) the main highway. See Osmose for reported problems on this.

Legal and access implications may and will vary between countries. The implications of these traffic signs on many specials vehicles and situations varies so much that it would need a lot of new tags to express this in OSM. There is no need to do this if the legal situation is clear. With a new country specific access scheme (=concept) on compulsory cycleways and their parallel roads it should give routers and renderers enough information for any type of vehicle/situation.

Note that in some cases cyclist may be allowed to use bicycle=use_sidepath ways while not allowed to use bicycle=no ways in any case at all. For example in Poland in general cyclist is not allowed to use road if parallel cycleway exists, unless it is unavoidable to go in some direction.

Case where cyclist is allowed to use road despite parallel cycleway. Tagging this road as bicycle=no would be incorrect, but in general cyclists are supposed to avoid it

Case where cyclist is allowed to use road despite parallel cycleway. Tagging Zarzecze as bicycle=no would be wrong and result in incorrect routing. bicycle:forward=use_sidepath is a correct tagging here (or maybe bicycle=use_sidepath, law is not clear).

How to tag

This tag applies to ways where a separate (cycle)way is drawn.

bicycle=use_sidepath

cycleway=separate (cycleway:left=separate / cycleway:right=separate / cycleway:both=separate variants) indicates, that there a separate (cycle)way is drawn. But it does not make any statement about whether that separately mapped cycle path is compulsory or not. bicycle=use_sidepath implies that there is a separately mapped cycle path nearby, but not where it is, so cycleway:left=separate, cycleway:right=separate or cycleway:both=separate can still be used to indicate position of the cycleway.

To indicate a one-way compulsory cycleway use a directional subkey, e.g. bicycle:forward=use_sidepath. Choose between :forward and :backward depending on the compulsory cycle direction relative to the direction of the OSM way for the main road. The cycleways OSM direction is not important.

In some cases a two-way cycleway may be compulsory only in one direction. In the opposite direction cyclists are free to choose between the main road and the cycleway. Handle this case like a one-way compulsory cycleway.

For more in-depth information see this proposal Proposed_features/use_sidepath.

Examples

Picture	Tags
This cycleway is compulsory.	Cycleway: highway=cycleway (implicit:bicycle=designated) Main road: bicycle=use_sidepath
(NL) or  (FR, AT) or  or  (DE) These cycleways are not compulsory. Cycling is allowed on the adjacent roads, too.	Cycleway: highway=cycleway Possible additional tags: tags that show that the cycleway is not compulsory mofa=* tags.
In this street, cycling is explicitly not allowed on the "road" (carriageway).	highway=* bicycle=no (explicit bicycle ban)

Links

On both the German ((in English)) and the Dutch forum have compulsory cycleways been discussed.

Supportmap

This tag is supported on the "Bicycle tags on OSM"- map.

Statistics

bicycle=use_sidepath
bicycle:forward=use_sidepath	bicycle:backward=use_sidepath

See also

• Proposed_features/use_sidepath - The original proposal
• foot=use_sidepath - Corresponding tag regarding pedestrian access
• cycleway=sidepath - On the main road: a non-compulsory cycleway is mapped separately. On a cycleway: this cycleway is a sidepath of the main road.
• cycleway=separate - On the main road: a cycleway is mapped separately.