[Tagging] relations & paths

[Kevin Kenny]

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 9:35 AM s8evq <s8evqq at runbox.com> wrote:
> The network key used on hiking/foot/horse/... relations "(...)indicates the scope of the route." (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:network#Bicycle.2C_hiking_and_other_recreational_routes), so international, national, regional or local.

And that's not terribly useful in North America, where we wind up
inventing the classification. Except for the National Scenic Trails,
and various state cycle routes, everything is local. Local clubs often
collaborate on joining their hiking trails into longer routes. We tag
'Long Path' with 'rwn' but there's really no regional network;
https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/919642 is maintained by
multiple clubs, loosely led by New York-New Jersey Trail conference.

The tagging scheme appears to presume that there is a hierarchical
administration of such things, and all the trails will be designated
by some authority - international, national, regional and local would
correspond to a hierarchy like Interstate/US Route; State Route;
County Route on the roads. But US hiking trails simply don't have such
a thing, so it's a bit of a force-fit. Here, it's all organized
bottom-up.
-- 
73 de ke9tv/2, Kevin