Ride with GPS OSM cycle

On Ride with GPS if i set it to OSM cycle the various routes have different colours

can anyone tell me what colours are for what kind of routes i.e bridleway, footpath etc…

Red dashed lines= Footpath?
Green dashed lines= Bridleway?
Blue dashed lines ???
white lines with dashes either side ??? (they seem to be at the end of a normal road and it continues on with dashes either side rather than a solid white line)

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Green are Bridleway. Brown Footpaths generally. Although don’t expect ordnance survey level of accuracy.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/key

The white dashed lines aren’t necessarily rights of way, but in some instances they may be (in my experience, they don’t overlay bridleway or footpath markings over them). They’re usually double track, farm roads, that kind of thing.

Remember that OSM is international so our legal concept of footpaths and bridleways isn’t necessarily represented as how we might be used to it. The OSM base data differentiates between what is on the ground, line across a field, walled track, etc. and what’s legally allowed. There’s also the concept of “preferred route” – think cycle underpass at a busy road junction.

OSM themselves only provide the base data, they leave it to others such as Garmin, Openfietsmap, etc. to actually render this as maps. So a bridleway might be marked as such across fields but when it meets a track then the track takes precedence and the “right of way” is no longer shown whereas Ordnance Survey will show the track with the bridleway symbol overlaid.

As for OS accuracy, hmm. A lot of bridleways and footpaths on OS maps are best described as “sweeping lines”, try this one from the summit of Moel Hebog in N. Wales – http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=256682&Y=347327&A=Y&Z=120 – actually don’t as the indicated line goes directly over a 500ft cliff! The black dashed line to the side is the actual path.

I use it a lot as down under it does a good job of showing off road shared paths….never found a key to the maps…have learnt the hard way that short red dashes are local authority boundaries

I think the colours depend on which map rendering is used?

In the actual openstreetmap site, click the “i” icon on the right for the key.
In opencyclemap site, there’s a link to the key in the bottom right (you may prefer to open in a new tab/window)

No idea if sites that make use of that data customise the rendering? If they do they ought to have their own key. Either way, if something’s not obvious, it’s handy to compare those two sites. Around here (not UK) the white with dashes each side would be a track / LRT / fireroad etc. (on opencycle map)

edit: and if you go directly in the openstreetmap site, click on the mousepointer with a questionmark button on the right, it lets you click on something in the map and query its metadata. And in there, it has hotlinks for most things to the wiki where it has more details about the grade of tracks etc. and right of way for bikes etc.

Although don’t expect ordnance survey level of accuracy.

Hah!

Near Stirling the detail on the OSM is far superior to that on OS :multiple foresty roads and windfarm tracks are missing from the OS maps despite being down for over 5 years now.

Cheers guys

Green are Bridleway. Brown Footpaths generally. Although don’t expect ordnance survey level of accuracy.

Need to get my eyes tested as i see the brown as red!

The white dashed lines aren’t necessarily rights of way, but in some instances they may be

There is one of these on a ride i do, bit of a strange one as its a green dashed bridleway which then joins onto a private drive which leads to a main road

Where the bridleway ends and meets the private driveway there is a path/drive opposite and a big sign saying Footpath only, no horses or bikes, it looks to be privately made and makes me wonder if i do have any rights to ride down there

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Where the bridleway ends and meets the private driveway there is a path/drive opposite and a big sign saying Footpath only, no horses or bikes, it looks to be privately made and makes me wonder if i do have any rights to ride down there

Your local authority should have a definitive map of Rights of Way, which should clarify every use, including special cases, where you have restricted byways, adopted highways and stuff like that.

Typically if a bridleway ends at an unmarked road I will assume it’s a continuation of the bridleway. There are loads of examples near me though where bridleways just stop in the middle of nowhere and become footpaths, sometimes at county borders, and sometimes for seemingly no reason at all.

If in doubt, email your local RoW officer.

As for OS accuracy, hmm.

Comments on accuracy were more to do with the key really and the potential for incorrect usage to be shown.

Interesting fact; map makers like Ordnance Survey insert deliberate mistakes so they can identify anyone plagiarising their work.

andytherocketeer

…..In the actual openstreetmap site, click the “i” icon on the right for the key.

using an Android phone with OSM app and plug ins like contours but don’t have an “i” icon 🙁 looked in setting can’t see how to turn on?

Where the bridleway ends and meets the private driveway there is a path/drive opposite and a big sign saying Footpath only, no horses or bikes, it looks to be privately made and makes me wonder if i do have any rights to ride down there

some councils now have definitive maps on line I believe

sounds like a possibly an “unclassified road” these are sometimes called “white roads” as that is how OS shows them – often they are unsealed and last time I involved myself in wading through the claims in a rights of way review local landowners where cheekily claiming many as private access…on the ground clues include: local authority road name signs…..bridal way and footpath signing at points where these leave the road/track….LA legally have to place these where the right of way leaves a public highway so if these signs are there it indicates a public highway though they often disappear….my tactic if challenged was to point out I knew the legal status and if they wanted me to ask the council to remove their signs and add signs identifying as a public road then I’m happy to do it

As for OS accuracy, hmm. A lot of bridleways and footpaths on OS maps are best described as “sweeping lines”, try this one from the summit of Moel Hebog in N. Wales – http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=256682&Y=347327&A=Y&Z=120 – actually don’t as the indicated line goes directly over a 500ft cliff! The black dashed line to the side is the actual path.

That’s not really inaccuracy. The green line is the “right of way” as shown on the definitive map. Lines on the definitive map are indicative and not necessarily 100% accurate on the ground. As you say, the black line is the true path. But yes, not understanding this could lead to a plunge over a cliff.

As for OSM bear in mind it is created and modified by anyone who cares to sign up. There are some lovely errors in my local area and some clear misunderstandings regarding how routing works – e.g. plonking a stile in the middle of a road where a FP meets it means foot traffic only along the road!

I’ve been using Ride with GPS to plot routes, but cross reference with UK Map app on my iPhone or iPad where I’m not sure about a Right of Way.
Though not true OS, UK Map seems to be a much closer representation. Works offline too as you download area tiles to your phone.

You can also quite easily edit the OSM data. I’ve taken to it recently after I found a useful project using it. Trailmap.fi is a custom rendering that uses a tag (mtb:scale) existing in the OSM system to render difficulty grades on trails as colors superimposed on the dashed lines.

It is strangely satisfying to see some of your favorite bits of trail from the real world appearing in our consensual hallucination. As if they exist more for being in the Internet.