Cycle Map Information
The Cycle Map is based on data from the OpenStreetMap project. At low zoom levels it is intended for overviews of the National Cycle Network; at higher zoom levels it should help with planning which streets to cycle on, where you can park your bike and so on.
The map is updated every week (on a Thursday or Friday, normally) with the latest data from OpenStreetMap. News about the cycle map can be found in the OpenStreetMap archives on this site.
Key
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National Cycle Route |
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Regional Cycle Route |
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Local Cycle Network |
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Cycleway | |
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Cycle Parking | |
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Toilets | |
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Toucan Crossings | |
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Other Crossings |
Tagging Guide (for OSM Contributors)
The main guide for cycle routes lives at Cycle Routes on the OSM wiki. The following is a summary:
| Concept | Tags | UK notes |
|---|---|---|
| National cycle network | ncn_ref = “XX” or ncn = “yes” | Sustrans’ National Cycle Routes |
| Regional cycle network | rcn_ref = “YY” or rcn = “yes” | Sustrans’ Regional cycle routes |
| Local cycle network | lcn_ref = “ZZ” or lcn = “yes” | Various, including London Cycle Network |
| Dedicated Cycleways | highway = “cycleway” | |
| Cycle Crossings | crossing = “toucan” | Toucan crossings |
| Other crossings | crossing = “anything” |
The tagging guide here is biased towards the UK definitions, but the map is fully international. Other countries have their own national, regional and local networks which use the same tags, but are decided on a country-by-country basis.
Notes
- There’s no need to add *cn = “yes” tags if there’s a *_ref tag already
- Un-numbered cycle routes are rendered too
- Contents of *_ref tags are rendered as if they are route references. Please keep them short!
- If you like, lcn can also stand for “London Cycle Network”!
- If you are mapping a proposed route, use “proposed” instead of “yes” and it will render as dotted
- See also the NCN page on OSM wiki
Credits
- Height Data is from NASA’s SRTM and is used in the public domain.
- Terrain Imagery is provided by True Marble by Unearthed Outdoors, LLC and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
- All other map data, including all cycling-related data, is from OpenStreetMap.org contributors and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 License.
Donations
If you appreciate the work that’s going on here and would like to contribute to the project, then join OpenStreetMap and help them out. If you can’t, or don’t want to, or want to help even more than you are already, then you can donate using this button – you don’t even need a PayPal account, you can use a credit or debit card by looking for a link on the next page.










