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

Rob Savoye rob at senecass.com
Sat May 30 14:57:10 UTC 2020


> Date: Sat, 30 May 2020 15:46:31 +0200
> From: Daniel Westergren <westis at gmail.com>

> *An additional issue:*
> 6. sac_scale is currently the only tag (possibly together with mtb:scale)
> to denote the difficulty of a hiking trail (that is, the way, not the
> route). But it's very geared towards alpine trails and there is not enough
> nuance in the lowest levels. Could the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS),
> Australian Walking Track Grading System and others complement or expand on
> sac_scale?

  As a climber, I don't think we'd want to apply YDS to hiking trails.
To me, YDS should only used for technical routes requiring equipment
(usually). I think "mountain_hiking" is what you can do without
equipment, even if occasionally using your hands for balance.
"alpine_hiking" is when I'm up near or above treeline, often in snow or
large scree fields. A fuzzier category are climber access trails that
most hikers shouldn't use. We have many of those around here.

> Would this be a fair summary? What have I missed? Who is interested in
> continuing this work in a smaller group? Or should we continue to spam this
> mailing list?

  I'd be interested in a working group on this, as my map data and maps
are used by multiple rural fire departments and SAR groups. You wouldn't
be surprised by how many people we rescue that misjudged the trail
difficulty... For us though, looking at the subtags helps determine the
type of response and equipment. sac_scale is a bit open to
interpretation based on one's experience, but better than nothing.

	- rob -



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