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Cycling Commons Wiki

The reference documentation for the open cycling-data Commons. The public site (cyclingcommons.org) is the pitch; this wiki (wiki.cyclingcommons.org) is the full story.

Start here

  • Manifesto: what the Commons is, the principles it holds to, and the theory underneath it (Elinor Ostrom's Governing the Commons).
  • Data catalog: every kind of data a rider can contribute, and the firm line between the open Commons and a person's private data.
  • Curation & voting: the core idea, per-region best-of lists chosen by riders. Routes are ranked today by ride confirmations; the season ballot for climbs, routes, views, heritage and stays is built and switched on after launch. Curation, not overload.
  • Contributing: how to add a fact or confirm one, how every edit is reviewed, and the intended path for giving durable facts back to OpenStreetMap (design, not built).
  • Scout: the one-tap tagger that records what you notice while you ride, straight into your own ride file, and how a tag becomes a place.
  • Location & privacy: why the map's location guessing and scope memory never need a cookie/consent banner.
  • Governance: BikeCoders as steward today, an independent foundation tomorrow, and how Ostrom's design principles keep a commons from being spammed, gamed, or enclosed.
  • Building the Commons: how the prototype is built and run, the stack we're leaning toward, and how to help build it, in code or in local knowledge.

The one-paragraph version

The Commons is an open atlas of the world's best riding (climbs, water, stays, hazards, viewpoints) that anyone can use and build on under the ODbL. Objective utility data (water, toilets, repair stations) aims to be complete. Subjective, experiential data (best climbs, bike-friendly stays, finest views, history & culture, top quality rides) is curated. Routes earn their place today through rode-it verification on the map. A season ballot, built and switched on after launch, lets riders vote for a region's best climbs, routes, views, heritage and stays, with a fresh round each season. Either way you see the best of a region rather than an undifferentiated pile. It maps the world, not the rider: the Commons dataset is non-personal by design.