[Tagging] track smoothness/quality

Joseph Eisenberg joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com
Sun Jul 7 07:40:31 UTC 2019


> *"Tracktype* is a measure of how well-maintained a track or other minor road is..."

"... particularly regarding surface firmness."

In contrast, on Map Features it says tracktype is "To describe the
quality of the surface".

The maintenance frequency of a road is not directly observable, so
it's good if this tag is defined in a way that relates to the road
itself.

This was the original description for grade5 in early 2008:

"unpaved track; subtle tire marks, lack of hardcore, Soft with low
grip, subtle on the landscape."
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Map_Features:tracktype&oldid=71778

Until July 2018 the grade5 description mentioned that the materials
should be "uncompacted":

"Almost always an unpaved track lacking hard materials, uncompacted,
with surface of soil/sand/grass."

Should "not compacted" be added back to the description, perhaps?

Joseph

On 7/7/19, brad <bradhaack at fastmail.com> wrote:
> That is true if the terrain is agreeable.  Often it is steep and a very
> loose rocky surface so 4wd is necessary.  Even if it isn't very steep,
> since it is not maintained very often, if at all, erosion creates
> hazards in the road also requiring 4wd or at least a very high clearance
> vehicle.
>
> *"Tracktype* is a measure of how well-maintained a track or other minor
> road is..."
>
>
> On 7/6/19 6:21 PM, Joseph Eisenberg wrote:
>> I would think that an unimproved track across naturally solid rock or
>> naturally well-compacted gravel would not be tracktype=grade5 - while
>> it might be bumpy, it’s probably passable by any vehicke with
>> sufficient clearance and tire size, even when wet, unlike a track of
>> unimproved clay, silt or loam which requires 4wd or is simply
>> impassable when it rains? But I’m not an expert on 4wd.
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 7, 2019 at 8:58 AM brad <bradhaack at fastmail.com
>> <mailto:bradhaack at fastmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     What wiki are you looking at?   At
>>     https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:tracktype, grade5 says
>>     "Soft.
>>     Almost always an unimproved track lacking hard materials, same as
>>     surrounding soil. "
>>
>>     What if the surrounding soil is hard materials???
>>     Clearly written by someone that has not seen rocky soil.
>>
>>     Brad
>>
>>     On 7/3/19 2:09 AM, Mark Wagner wrote:
>>     > Option 3 won't work.  Locally, tracks come in two basic types:
>>     >
>>     > 1) A logging road created by a work crew with a bulldozer.  Cut
>> down
>>     > any trees, scrape off any remaining vegetation, level the road
>>     > side-to-side, and call it done.  These roads range in quality from
>>     > "easily passable by a passenger car" to "high-clearance
>>     > four-wheel-drive vehicle required".
>>     >
>>     > 2) A ranch road created by a truck driving the same route
>> repeatedly
>>     > for years.  These are generally fairly smooth, but the older
>>     ones are
>>     > only passable by a high-clearance truck because of the central
>> ridge
>>     > between the tracks.
>>     >
>>     > According to the wiki, these are uniformly "grade5" ("Almost
>>     always an
>>     > unpaved track lacking additional materials, same surface as
>>     surrounding
>>     > terrain."), although calling them "soft" is misleading, since
>>     the local
>>     > soil produces a rock-hard surface during the summer and fall (and a
>>     > muddy one during spring melt). They're tagged pretty much at
>>     random as
>>     > anything from "grade1" to "grade5".
>>     >
>>
>>
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