[Tagging] Reviving the path discussion - the increasing importance of trails in OSM

John Willis johnw at mac.com
Mon May 25 09:42:22 UTC 2020



Javbw

> On May 25, 2020, at 1:28 PM, Andrew Harvey <andrew.harvey4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> We do have that: `sac_scale=hiking`

And that is a good example of bad tagging I want to correct. 

There are more people walking local wilderness trails with their dog in a single day than all “backpackers” on earth in a year. Few-to-none of these are “day-hike” or “trekking” routes, yet they are most definitely “trails”. I do not need to know the sac scale to tag it as a trail. 

And How are those routes “hiking”? There are plenty of trails not meant for hiking. Hiking is a leisure pastime. A trail is type of way. 

I can tag a track without defining it’s tracktype=* it’s a track - _and then_ further defined by tracktype=* .

Do I have to know the width to tag a road? Do I need to know the number of stairs or the incline of the steps to tag it as steps? 

No. 

It’s a residential road. Steps. A cycleway. A trail. 

The attributes of the way do not define it as that type of way - a named tag anyone can use does, including someone who can’t define its sac scale - or has no idea what the heck that is. 

Trails should Have _never_ been lumped in with path. It was a _horrible_ decision, like motorways and driveways sharing a main tag because cars use both. 

At least sub-tagging them to be able to easily separate them _and then_, when possible define further characteristics __when possible__ with more specific tags, like sac scale. 

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