Bicycle Mapbuilder

Here's a fascinating Bicycle Mapbuilder project from Cameron Shorter via the CM-Sydney list. BTW, do any Melb massers anyone remember the silly 'Randy Router™' mapping device circa 1998? Ok, it was on the old CM Virtual Moreland list. (testing your memories here) Returning to topic, Cameron's also created a google group for further discussions: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/bikemap

From Cameron: For the last few years I have been quietly working on a Bicycle Mapbuilder project. The concept is explained in detail at:
http://bikemap.openearth.com.au/docs/whitepaper/index.html

"Present a web page with a city map to a cyclist. The cyclist enters their favourite bicycle route on top of the map. Click, click, click, ... Submit. After hundreds of cyclists have all entered their favourite routes into the database, you have a comprehensive bicycle map of the city. Using the same process, cyclists can maintain the bicycle routes and the maps will never be outdated.

The expensive, labour intensive collection and validation of geographic data is moved from employees to enthusiastic volunteers, making it possible to build and maintain extensive, quality maps on a shoe-string budget." All the technical obstacles for the project are complete and I've started building a demonstrator to support a funding and rollout proposal. I'm looking for advice to help define what fields should be stored in a Bicycle Map database. This what I've come up with so far:

- StreetName
- StreetType (Rd, St, Ave, Firetrail, ...)
- BicycleFacilities (None, PaintedLane, DedicatedPath, SharedPath, Footpath, RoadShoulder)
- DangerLevel (1=DedicatedPath, 2=QuietBackStreet, 3=PaintedLane,50km/hr road, 4=Shoulder,80km/hr, 10=NoShoulder 100km/hr)

Please add your suggestions, and/or forward onto other cyclists who may be interested.
PS, This is the first time I've talked about this project with more than just a few people around me. So I'm interested to hear people's feedback or suggestions.

Cameron Shorter
c a m e r o n @ s h o r t e r . n e t
http://cameron.shorter.net
http://mapbuilder.sourceforge.net