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<p><font face="Verdana">When I talk to my 8 year old daughter, who
is very interested in becoming an OSM mapper, or try to engage
people from the community who was not so fortunate to have
higher education, I always use the example of a tree to explain
the different classification mechanisms.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Every linear part of the tree transports
sap, all roads that take living beings from A to B is a road.
That's our basic classification.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Trunk roads, as fortunately the word already
says, is like the trunk of a tree. It's strategic, it takes the
sap, the minerals, the sugars from one important place to
another, from the roots to the crown and vice versa.<br>
Some trees have wide trunks, other narrow. Some might have a
lot of sap running through it, some not. Some have short trunks,
others are high and long. That doesn't however change the fact
that all of them are trunks.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Their are trees who have multiple trunks,
but they are the same important, but you might call them
primary, like primary roads. They are still strategic but
provide roads to move from one strategic place to multiple other
strategic places, multiple crowns, or one crown fed by multiple
trunks.<br>
So Primary roads are strategic roads, you might also call them
trunk roads, although we prefer trunk to identify a single
strategic road.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Secondary, or if you want collector roads,
collect the sap traffic from the major branches to direct it to
the trunk.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Tertiary, or if you want feeder roads,
collect the sap from minor branches to direct it to the
collector branches.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Residential roads, or if you want local
roads, are the stems that lead to the leafs, or the smallest
branches with many leaves. Like the roads that lead to one or
more houses. So what about industrial roads ? Yep, they are the
same, they are also local roads, like the stems or small
branches that carry the fruits or the flowers. The stems have
exactly the same function, they carry the sap locally. We have
chosen the word residential, because most of them lead to houses
where people live, work etc... Like mostly there are more leaves
then factories or fruits.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Why service roads ? Well, some leaves grow
on one single stem, sometimes leaves look different, and you
have multiple leaves on one stem. If the stem belongs to one
leave, it serves 1 particular leave only, we call it a stem
serving 1 purpose, it's a service road. The same like some
houses are build along a road, a local road, don't have
driveways because they are close and along the road. Others are
more far, and have their own driveway. So those driveways are
service roads.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">A satelite image of a road network looks
much the same like a tree.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Why do we need unclassified ? Look at it
from the point of view from an ant, walking on the tree. The
ant only knows that it walks on a road, it can't see that far to
see if that road is a minor branch or a major branch, or even a
shallow trunk. It does however know that it is something that
belongs to one of these, because sap runs through it. It's like
a mapper in the field without a satellite imagery. The ant can
only find out what the road exactly is, by walking all the way
from one end to the other, or by asking other ants who already
acquired that knowledge. In case they are not there, it should
call it unclassified, to indicate it needs more information to
assign a final judgement.<br>
<br>
So where does the classification end up with track ? Well, all
branches that are in the early stages of development, that have
not led to the development of fruits or leaves or flowers, all
of those transport sap but have no clear determination yet. All
those remain tracks.<br>
<br>
What about motorway, express-way, path, the classification based
on throughput. Also there is a very good similarity with our
tree. To increase the throughput of sap, a tree may grow a wider
trunk. To increase the flow of sap a human may trim some
branches on the trunk. Cut or trim some minor branches from
major branches etc...<br>
Motorways, express-ways and paths are tracks where specific
access AND/OR physical measures are have evolved spontaneously
or taken purposely to improve the throughput. <br>
For motorway and express-way: higher speed desired, so access
restrictions for slower then average speed.<br>
For path: slower speed desired: so access restrictions for
higher then average speed.<br>
So the most important criteria here is separation based on
speed. Other measures taken are there only to further support
the throughput. More lanes, width, lane width etc... are some
of these measures but not the prime and most important:
separation.<br>
So I might have wide motorways, narrow motorways, narrow paths,
wide paths.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Path comes here as a difficult case here to
find similarity. The best comparison could be the nerves in a
leaf, they are still transport ways for sap, but slow moving.
These nerves can be wide or narrow, but all are typical because
of slow moving sap.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Remains, what are tracks: all roads that
have no specific socio-economic purpose and where no
intervention has taken place to separate traffic that moves at
significant different speeds.</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Hope this helps too,</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Bert Araali</font></p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 08/03/2021 20:39, Bert -Araali- Van
Opstal wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:7c1dc2ad-165b-0aec-2224-dd0506c40587@gmail.com">
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<p><font face="Verdana">Every road is a track, every modification
of a natural environment by living creatures to move from one
place to another is a track.<br>
So start your mental journey with highway=track.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Verdana">Now you identified a track. First
question: Can I add a social or economic importance to it (for
humans but might as well work for animals).<br>
If yes, find a suitable socio-economic tag, you end up with
highway=trunk(= all strategic tracks), primary(strategic bt
not crossing international borders), secondary (=collector),
tertiary(=feeder), residential (=local, any local importance,
can be industrial) ,service or unclassified if you do mean it
has a socio-economic importance but you couldn't determine
which specifically or a single key, then highway=unclassified
(room for considering combining multiple values).<br>
You can't or don't want to add a socio-economic importance,
you remain with highway=track.</font></p>
<p>Can I use a tag to specify if it is modified by humans to
improve the throughput of the road. (by access restrictions,
physical modifications like solting it from crossing roads,
making it wider or narrower). If yes, use highway=motorway,
path. Possible additional tags like express can be used.<br>
Ask yourself the same question if you used one of the
socio-economic keys, so any highway from the above
socio-economic classes can be a motorway or a path. (also room
for improvement, our current tagging guidelines don't allow
multiple values in the highway key), but as far as I am
concerned might be highway=primary;motorway or might as well be
highway=primary;path).<br>
Possible additional values: alley etc...<br>
No clear answer ? You still are with highway=track.</p>
<p>You remain with highway=track.<br>
</p>
<p>Missing in OSM: highway top level values to indicate how it is
managed, however these should not be on the top level, because
the tracks from the above can be managed by humans, taking in
consideration values for names given worldwide.<br>
So we need a subkey for the highway tagging to describe it's
management, often reflected in specific names.<br>
This could be highway:name_managed=highway, interstate, freeway,
motorway, trunk, bypass, ringway... with additional tags for the
operator=* and or translation so it can be understood worldwide:
f.i. highway:name_managed:nl= snelweg, express weg, ringweg ...
or highway:name_managed:de= Autobahn or highway:name_managed:fr=
route_nationale, autoroute ... or highway:name_managed:hi=<span
lang="hi">हाईवे... or highway:name_managed:zh-hant= </span><span
lang="zh-TW">高速公路... or highway:name_managed:ru=</span><span
lang="ru">автомагистраль... ) </span>etc...? Add an
admin_level.</p>
<p>Finally, ask yourself if you would like to add tagging to
describe physical restrictions or improvements that support one
of the above classifications, like paved/unpaved or specific
surface, smoothness, seasonal or weather condition aspects ?<br>
But it remains a highway=track or one of the highway=* tags
above. This doesn't change the top-level highway key.<br>
</p>
<p>In the end it remains a track, like all roads do, like all
highway=* do. You remain with highway=track through the
elimination process described above.<br>
Works everywhere, globally, in every language, simple and shows
how the mess is actually not a mess if we all think in the same
way.... which we do, we are all living beings.<br>
</p>
<p>Greetings,</p>
<p>Bert Araali<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 08/03/2021 19:09, Kevin Broderick
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAPtRu6cu-JmvXRXHwbgewO5maV=n3Q=8FiPwJuk_JKs1YOK39g@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">I think it's worth noting that, at least as
currently tagged, there are more than a few tracks in rural
portions of the U.S. that, while not maintained for travel by
sedan, are more a part of the road network than the dead-end
agricultural/forestry access roads that have been discussed
thus far.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>In New England, a lot of them are old parts of the road
network that are not maintained to an auto-friendly level
(if at all), yet may remain travelable and in some cases are
still public right-of-ways. E.g. <a
href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/19723462"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/19723462</a>
— if you're on foot and wearing muck boots, it's
probably quicker to walk the track than to follow the
residential road out to the state highway and go all the way
around to the other side. Or <a
href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/19724346"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/19724346</a>,
similar story, although it's actually parallel to a
well-maintained state highway. Both are public
right-of-ways, but neither is maintained at a level that is
going to make taking your rental car through a particularly
great idea.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/288861133"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/288861133</a>
is another good example; it's decidedly a shorter route (in
distance, not time) between Waitsfield Common and Northfield
than any of the modern roads, but it is no longer maintained
for automotive traffic nor a public right of way. I'm pretty
sure that, historically, it was a higher-level member of the
road network.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Out west, a couple of examples where tracks are decidedly
part of the road network, but don't easily fit into other
classifications:</div>
<div><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/5424246"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/5424246</a>
— largely a recreational route for public-land access via
ATV and 4x4 (or dirt bike), but a through route
nonetheless. <br>
</div>
<div><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/5425643"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/5425643</a>
— roughly parallel to a state highway, not particularly
well-maintained (IIRC, this section isn't sedan-friendly)
but provides access to public (USFS) land as well as some
remote residential structures (possibly seasonal, not 100%
sure if that particular segment is plowed in winter or not,
but I don't think it is)<br>
</div>
<div>The second (5425643 / Meeteetsee Trail) could arguably be
a residential road, but that doesn't seem to be its primary
function in the road network, plus the physical
characteristics of a residential road generally allow for
UPS deliveries and such, which I don't think happen there (I
believe you *could* get a box van across it in the summer,
as long as it hadn't rained recently, but it wouldn't be
quick).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm not sure what the best answer is, but I thought that
having some more corner-case examples to look at might
inform the discussion.</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at 9:49
AM Zeke Farwell <<a href="mailto:ezekielf@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">ezekielf@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Interesting. I am familiar with wide logging roads
like the one shown here: <a
href="https://puszcza-bialowieska.blogspot.com/2013/06/droga-browska-jak-autostrada.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://puszcza-bialowieska.blogspot.com/2013/06/droga-browska-jak-autostrada.html</a></div>
<div>I would not expect it to be tagged as 'track'
though. I would expect 'unclassified' because the wide
logging roads I'm thinking of connect from the general
road network to the narrower logging roads that I would
expect to be tagged as 'track'. In my mind the
classification 'track' is a combination of
function/purpose and physical characteristics. A
driveway to a house may match the physical description
by looking like this tracktype grade3 example (<a
href="https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Tracktype_grade3.jpg"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Tracktype_grade3.jpg</a>),
but it does not match the functional description because
it provides access to a full time residence. A wide
logging road matches the functional description by being
primarily for logging, but does not meet the physical
description because it is wide enough for two large
vehicles to pass. Perhaps my mental model is too narrow
though. I will be interested to here more feedback on
the subject.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Mar 8, 2021 at
9:18 AM Mateusz Konieczny via Tagging <<a
href="mailto:tagging@openstreetmap.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">tagging@openstreetmap.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Mar 8, 2021, 15:00 by <a
href="mailto:dieterdreist@gmail.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">dieterdreist@gmail.com</a>:<br>
</div>
<blockquote style="border-left:1px solid
rgb(147,163,184);padding-left:10px;margin-left:5px">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">Am Mo., 8. März 2021 um 14:47 Uhr
schrieb Mateusz Konieczny via Tagging <<a
href="mailto:tagging@openstreetmap.org"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">tagging@openstreetmap.org</a>>:<br>
</div>
<blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<div>In this specific case it was clearly
highway=track as it was<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>- used by vehicles solely and only for
logging forest (and by tourists as
annoying connecting segment)<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>not accurate according to your description
below (access to sawmill)<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div>It was not between general road network and
sawmill, it was<br>
</div>
<div>between forest and sawmill, branching later into
smaller and more standard highway=track<br>
</div>
<div>that branched into even smaller ones and
terminated in a forest.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And to clarify tourists parts - they were on
foot, maybe some using bicycles.<br>
</div>
</div>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br clear="all">
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Kevin Broderick</div>
<div><a href="mailto:ktb@kevinbroderick.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">ktb@kevinbroderick.com</a></div>
</div>
</div>
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