OpenStreetMap
On the German mailing list one mapper recently asked how to tag a dirt road:
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-de/2011-October/089483.html
There are many dirt roads with local importance which should be tagged as tertiary due to their importance, but also as track due to their road condition:
Let's take the Mosquito Pass in Colorado - it is a major connection between Fairplay and Leadville that looks like presented in these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOzE2_qrNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4owzKpG4JPU
I wish we had a tagging mechanism for dirt roads combining importance (highway=*) and road condition (tracktype=* or 4wd=easy/moderate/difficult).
Any suggestions?
Parola
Comentario de stevage no 10 de Outubro de 2011 ás 23:39
Interesting question. I'd ask on help.openstreetmap.org.
Comentario de z-dude no 11 de Outubro de 2011 ás 01:27
If you can't use a normal car, then I'd tag it as a track. You don't want people in normal cars getting stranded because their GPS told them to drive on a dirt road. http://www.torontosun.com/2011/10/04/stranded-woman-recounts-tale-of-survival
If you can use a normal car, then tag it as a road, surface = gravel or surface = dirt (potlatch has this in the simple editor)
There's some proposed 4wd tags.
osm.wiki/Proposed_features/4WD_Only
osm.wiki/Tag:4wd_only%3Dyes
Comentario de Pan no 11 de Outubro de 2011 ás 05:28
Here in DRC, even most of the primary roads are dirt tracks. it is difficult to know how to tag them.
Comentario de Diomas no 11 de Outubro de 2011 ás 06:53
highway=track doesn't tell us anything about accessibility - it can have excellent smooth surface, it just mean that the road leads to "nowhere": road in the forest to some single hut or a road in the field to some lake. So it's just about the status of the road.
In other words, if the road has a name/number, or if it's the only way to get to some hamlet/village/town, then it can't be highway=track whatever surface it has. Otherwise it should be at least highway=unclassified.
You can also do some check: if removing highway=track cause some highway=unclassified|residential etc way to be not connected to other roads, then the road you just removed is not a highway=track.
To define a surface there is a "surface" tag - it can be applied to any highway: from highway=trunk to highway=footway.
To define a physical accessibility of the road there are many tags can be used:
tracktype (for tracks only),
smoothness,
and different proposals like 4wd, 4wd_only, surface:grade etc
Comentario de Richard no 11 de Outubro de 2011 ás 07:09
highway=tertiary, surface=unpaved | gravel | dirt | what-have-you.
Comentario de maxolasersquad no 11 de Outubro de 2011 ás 15:27
Richard ++
Comentario de marscot no 12 de Outubro de 2011 ás 19:29
I would tag them highway=track but they are as you say tertiary tracks, maybe this points to a new type of track that needs to be drawn
Highway=track
track_type=tertiary_grade1or 2 or 3 or 4
Comentario de Jean-Marc Liotier no 14 de Outubro de 2011 ás 09:31
Richard's "highway=tertiary, surface=unpaved | gravel | dirt | what-have-you" is the correct answer. Here in Europe we are not used to anything but pavement, whereas in Africa I have often seen tertiary and even secondary dirt roads. The place of the road in the network hierarchy is the primary indicator for the highway tag - road surface is less important.