United States Bicycle Route 37 in Indiana awaits OSM entry

Communities United States
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There remain a few more weeks while AASHTO has state DOT-submitted United States Bicycle Routes “on ballot” for the Spring 2023 Round and then we’ll hear which ones AASHTO Approves (in June or July). Just about the last one to be entered into OSM this Round, USBR 37 in Indiana awaits. If you like entering or “tinkering around with” type=route (route=bicycle or otherwise) relations, this might be an enjoyable endeavor. See our wiki [1] for links (in the table’s row for USBR 37), where an OSM relation has already been “seeded” at the route’s termini. This might take you a few hours, it might take you a weekend, but it should be fun for anyone who like these sorts of small projects.

Depending on how we count (new routes, realignments and supplemental / belt-spur routes), there are something like 14 USBRs this AASHTO Round, the “second biggest submission ever” to AASHTO in the USBRS. OSM is nearing completion of entering these “prototype routes” (we attach the state=proposed tag while the route relation is under construction in OSM, then remove this tag upon Approval); only the Alaska routes and USBR 37 in Indiana remain. Going, going, soon to be gone! The Alaska USBRs this Round are a bit exciting as (if Approved) they may allow contiguous routing between Bellingham, Washington and points in Alaska via ferry, “closing the gap” for cyclists on long-distance treks between Alaska and the lower 48 states.

Feel free to communicate status directly in our map (data entry, changeset comments…) and wiki.

Happy mapping!
(Cross-posted to talk-us)

[1] United States Bicycle Route System - OpenStreetMap Wiki

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Thanks for the post to inform the community snd promote collaboration. Its great that someone to keeping abreast of new approved official route designations and leading the charge to enter these in OSM.

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I appreciate your kind words. This has been a decade-long endeavor of joy for me in OSM; please see a blog post from two summers ago, From Sandbox to Construction Zone to a Beautiful National Network of Bicycle Routes | OpenStreetMap US.

Twice a year, this is an opportunity for any US mapper who wants to participate to follow a well-established, regular wiki-documented process, making what is fun into fun + wide-area OSM collaboration. Indeed, mappers from dozens of states have entered thousands of miles of these bicycle routes, making our “many hands make light work” crowdsourcing tenet both true and enjoyable by many!

I used to (and still do, with the cross-posting) make these announcements on talk-us, and may still do so as that list remains active, but as more and more “eyeball traffic” happens here (in Discourse), I made this post here. Your feedback is nice.