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OpenCycleMap
Article Overview
OpenCycleMap is a project related to OpenStreetMap, the opensource, wiki style map. OpenCycleMap started as a map of bike routes in England. New Yorkers have edited it to include cycle lanes in the city. It could be the one free bike map for cyclists all over the world. A mountain bike map project in Europe is also a related project:
What OpenStreetMap is
Free map data
Most map data is copy written. You can use it in an approved application only, and you cannot use it as you wish. It can get stale, and typically one company controls what appears on the map and it's use. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a wiki style map that anyone can edit. From bulk imports of government data, and the work of individual mappers all around the world it has become quite a capable map already. The map data itself is under the Creative Commons Share Alike license, therefore it is free to use in your application, as long as your application is also free to use. People have written programs to produce maps from the OSM data and download to a Garmin GPS.
CycleMap
The OpenCycleMap is a specific "Renderer" of the OSM map data. There are many different ways of displaying the map data, and the OpenCycleMap renderer emphasizes cycling aspects. In England, people have added 'relations' to the map that make a cycling network. In New York, people have added tags to the streets such as 'cycleway=lane' for painted bike lanes and 'cycleway=yes' for primary cycle paths. The lanes appear on the map as blue lines on the streets and the greenways have a dashed line. The location of bike racks has also been imported, and they appear as blue squares on the map. See Williamsburg Brooklyn for an example.
Pedestrian Ways, Hiking Trails
All the OpenStreetMap renderers on the web show pedestrian only 'footways' as a dotted pink line. Therefore you can add all kinds of pedestrian only paths that are not visible on any commercial map. If you look at the NYC portion of the map, you will see these in Fort Greene Park, Prospect Park and elsewhere.
Pedestrian Ways, Hiking Trails, Bridleways and Mountain Biking
The amazing Mountain Bike project at http://openmtbmap.org/ for Europe only currently. This project creates maps of mountain bike trails labeled with levels of difficulty, can be downloaded to a Garmin GPS and can be used to autoroute on a bike.
You Can Help
Contribute to the map
You can learn how to edit the map by attending a mapping party. Mapping parties are held every month in New York City and all over. Check out the Events page to find a party near you. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Events. Read a few tutorials on using JOSM to edit the data or the Online application Potlatch. Upload your GPS traces or better yet, use them to improve the map.
