[OSM-newbies] howto mark a usable, but not designated mountain trail

[Andre Engels]

On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 12:50 AM, Alexandros Papadopoulos
<alexandros.papadopoulos at gmail.com> wrote:

> Our recent mountain meanderings created an interesting mapping
> situation. At one point we knew very well, from the paper map we had
> with us and the GPS unit's breadcrumbs, that the designated trail was
> sending us to a junction 1km due north, only to then track back
> another 1km due south to a position roughly 300m to our east.
>
> As we were already nearing the end of the day and were tired, the
> prospect of saving ~2km of walking was too good to pass on, so we did
> the naughty thing and took a shortcut through the forest.
>
> I mapped it for two reasons:
>
> 1. If someone happens to be there and needs to get out of the mountain
> quickly, this is the best way to do it.
> 2. Now the mapped way is circular, otherwise it would have abruptly
> ended in the forest nothingness.
>
> The right kink shown at http://osm.org/go/Zc93G@e0M- (if it's not live
> yet, you should be able to see it by clicking the "+" on the map and
> then the "data" overlay) captures my dilemma. Following the marked
> trail we would have walked on due NW back to the guidepost, and
> rejoined the "Long Path".
>
> I currently chose to:
> 1. break the way in two
> 2. clearly mark the "shortcut" section as such (by name)
> 3. not using the "foot=designated" tag for the shortcut.
>
> What's the right thing to do in a case like this? This is useful data
> for the map in case of emergency, but I don't want this to turn into a
> mainstream trail either!

I would have mapped it with no name at all, and with highway=path
rather than highway=footway. And indeed no foot=designated - it is not
designated at all, so definitely not for foot traffic.

-- 
André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com