Bike route networks classification (ICN, NCN, RCN and LCN)

[Minh_Nguyen (Minh Nguyễn)]

@ramthelinefeed

In London, you will have TfL “Cycleway” routes (tagged on OSN as ‘rcn’) which are high quality kerb-segregated tracks… but show up on renderers like Waymarkedtrails.org and OpenCycleMap etc as less important that EV/NCN routes that are just busy roads, devoid of cycle infrastructure, and barely waymarked. Or bear ‘cylists dismount’ signs. Gah!

Still better than swimming to complete this network=rcn:

@Minh_Nguyen

As a mapper, I would like to clarify the situation through tagging. For example, this route relation across Kentucky calls itself the “Ramblin’ River Bike Tour”, supposedly part of the Kentucky state bike route network, sourced to a defunct page on KYTC’s site about the Underground Railroad Bike Tour, with a note that this route is not even a proposed route yet. A renderer would reasonably mark it with a green oval inscribed with “RRT”, based on the cycle_network and ref tags.

I remember when this relation first appeared in OpenCycleMap. As someone who used to live nearby and followed local trail development closely, I understood that this was merely a tour published somewhere and entered into OSM for convenience, not because there’s anything tangible about it. Eight years later, at least KYTC still pencils in the route as a potential corridor for a future USBR 35.

@Minh_Nguyen

This “Ramblin’ River” tour follows a road in Northern Kentucky that used to ramble right into the river below after every major storm, forcing KYTC to more or less abandon the road for a few years. When I closed off the road and detoured Kentucky Route 8 around the area, I didn’t quite know what to do with this bike route. (Currently, the road is currently in a somewhat better state of repair as Kentucky Route 6335, the highest number in the state – in other words, the least important route in the state.)