Hello! I would like to share a recent news with you all.
Last month, the EuroVelo General Meeting (EVGM), constituted by the National EuroVelo Coordination Centres (NECCs), voted in favour of a proposal to apply an open data License to EuroVelo GPX tracks. Tracks will be distributed from now on under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL). You can read the full news in this article and the full license and disclaimer that will soon be updated on our website.
With this decision, we want to promote greater transparency, collaboration and innovation with the free use and share of the tracks. I am aware of the complexities of using open data on OSM depending on the license used. I hope that the ODbL will make it possible for you to use EuroVelo tracks in a way that helps the OSM project. Please get in touch with me if we need to make any changes to how we phrase our license to make it usable.
EuroVelo GPX tracks are provided on general route pages (such as here or here) and thematic stage pages (for instance here, or here). Click on the button “Download this stage in GPX” and a box will unfold, giving the options to “Download full route/stage” or “Download developed parts”.
However, please be aware that not all EuroVelo routes are well developed and signed (you can find an estimate of the current development status of the EuroVelo network in the EuroVelo Route Development Status Report 2024) and even where they are, GPX tracks provided by our National EuroVelo Coordination Centres (NECCs) and updated on a yearly basis may always contain errors or outdated information, especially in countries with no NECC. It is always better to map EuroVelo routes on OSM based on ground truth. And it would be really useful for us if you have time to notify us of errors or inaccuracies that you find in the tracks (you can write to eurovelo@ecf.com for the email to be forwarded to the right person).
Moreover, GPX tracks are provided in multiple segments corresponding to a division into “daily sections” with their level of development, following the structure of our database. This is the best technical solution fitting our needs that we have so far. We are looking into providing a simpler download option for all EuroVelo routes in a single ZIP folder.
I would also like to note that our last EuroVelo Route Development Status Report includes, for the first time, a chapter titled “What can we learn on EuroVelo from OpenStreetMap data?” We hope to be able to pursue this work in the coming years and to obtain more useful information on EuroVelo from OSM data. Any ideas are welcome!
