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

[Steve Bennett]

  On 7/01/2011 6:23 AM, 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.

highway=unclassified, surface=unpaved (or surface=gravel if you like)

> 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. 
Just a tip: try to avoid seeing "implications" in the word used for a 
tag. Look up the wiki and see what it says about highway=track. (Ok, in 
this case it's not terribly clear, but anyway).

Come to think of it, it would be nice to have a better definition of 
"track". I tend to think of it as a unpaved road with apparent tyre 
ruts, maintained (if at all) by some sort of parks service, rather than 
the body that maintains highways and residential roads. That's 
admittedly not a watertight definition. Maybe something about a low 
practical speed, poor quality etc.

> 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.
Don't worry about the width. The distinguishing feature of an 
unclassified is that it's less important than a tertiary, and is not a 
residential. (Implicitly, it has a higher speed limit than a residential).

> do we need something new for the United States?
Definitely not.

Steve
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