[OSM-newbies] The classic U.S. gravel road

[Charlotte Wolter]

John,

         Thanks for your comment.
         For an education on tracks, check out the Navajo Reservation 
in Arizona, where there are true "tracks" everywhere. Before the 
advent of modern roadways, people just made their own, and in desert 
country a pickup truck or even a horse-drawn wagon can cut a 
significant track. Because it's a desert, nothing grows back for 
decades. So they all are still there, mostly abandoned by their 
makers but visible on Yahoo and Bing. Luckily, the Navajo now have a 
sophisticated GIS Department with good maps, especially for the roads 
they maintain. But, it's still an adventure mapping it all, and the 
place is as big as New England!

Best wishes,

Charlotte


At 12:04 PM 1/6/2011, you wrote:
>So far, the only road that I have tagged as a track was a one-lane, 
>unnamed, and poorly-maintained gravel road laid out in an 
>otherwise-overgrown field, and intended for use by trucks 
>maintaining a series of billboards along an Interstate Highway (a 
>motorway, to use the British term).
>
>-------Original Email-------
>Subject :Re: [OSM-newbies] The classic U.S. gravel road
>From  :mailto:rwelty at averillpark.net
>Date  :Thu Jan 06 13:37:24 America/Chicago 2011
>
>
>On 1/6/11 2:23 PM, Charlotte Wolter wrote: Hello everyone,
>
>          In the U.S. most rural and some suburban areas have mostly 
> two-lane gravel roads. These are not tracks. They are regularly 
> maintained, usually by the county. They often follow the one-mile 
> grid lines common in the United States.
>          However, I haven't been able to find an equivalent in OSM 
> tagging. They are not tracks, which implies something opportunistic 
> and not maintained by government. The photo accompanying 
> "unclassified" shows a narrow paved road like many rural roads I 
> have seen in the U.K. But, these are not narrow--they usually are 
> at least two lanes wide--and they are not paved.
>          So, how should I tag them, or do we need something new for 
> the United States?
>  i generally use unclassified (or sometimes residential if there is a lot of
>  housing) with surface=gravel. set maxspeed as appropriate.
>
>  i would only use track for an unnamed road, most of the gravel roads
>  have names or street numbers in the US. take a look at the road grid
>  in rural Iowa sometime. almost all gravel, heavily used and maintained,
>  all numbered/named.
>
>  richard
>
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>--
>John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com
>"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly
>is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
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Charlotte Wolter
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Santa Monica, California
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