OpenStreetMap
Moreton Island — Beaches
Posted by CatastropheAsh on 11 February 2009 in English. Last updated on 12 February 2009.I got a buddy of mine to grant license to some of his GPS tracks from a recent trip to Moreton Island, so tonight I've been updating the previously barren map with some really high quality data.
I don't have any names or much metadata, but I've been able to map in a lot of tracks, as well as some beaches.
That's where the problem starts. You're permitted to drive vehicles on the beaches (with a permit,) but there's not really any way to indicate that for routing purposes. I've tried to come up with a solution, but it doesn't seem to render nicely on the minutely updated tiles, so I'm not sure if it's an ideal solution.
So far I've come up with:
- natural
- beach
- surface
- sand
- area
- yes
- access
- permissive
- highway
- residential
I'm at a bit of a loss as to how else to tackle this, so if you know of any existing cases, or better methods, don't hesitate to let me know.
Discussion
Comment from FedericoCozzi on 12 February 2009 at 15:41
I am not sure access=permissive is right (I'd prefer access=private) however the real problem is that (IMHO) a beach is not a highway, so shouldn't be tagged as such.
I understand that you want it to be routable, but I think that tagging it as highway just for routing is bad. Ideally, routing software should be able to route through areas when access and surface allow.
BTW, if you add access=X, you should also add foot=, etc. because in such cases usually walking is always allowed even if you don't have a permit.
PS: I wouldn't care about a permit-only beach not being routable. If you have a permit, I guess you know if you should route through it. And if you are using a car navigator, it's likely you don't have an appropriate permit.
Comment from CatastropheAsh on 12 February 2009 at 15:55
That's a fair point. I've been doing some more reading, and talking with the people on IRC and the consensus as you suggest is that “highway” has to go. It seems that area=yes and access=something should be enough for routing purposes.
The interesting thing is that the Wikipedia article itself states “Many beaches, particularly on the east shore, also serve as roads.” It's that which makes me think they should be marked more formally somehow.
That said, the solution at the moment seems reasonable enough. I guess I'll keep an eye on the trends and update it later if need be. :)