[Tagging] Use of highway=track vs highway=service cemeteries, parks, allotment gardens, golf courses, and recreation areas

[Niels Elgaard Larsen]

stevea:
> Yes, Paul, I'll reiterate that there is some history for some of us long-timers which is reflected in how we USED to map vs. how we map today.  Speaking for myself, "what I learned and how I learned 



> I'd like to agree with him in an ideal world of perfect knowledge of what roads are "by usage."  But when mapping, I'm not going to wait for a garbage truck or a school bus to drive by to get the tag perfectly right.

No, but at least here in DK you can still on aerials spot normals cars on roads that 
was tagged as highway=track, usually 10+ years ago. Which is an indication that they 
are not really tracks.
And we get new aerials every year.

And it is possible to deduce it by function. E.g., if in a forest you have 
highway=track leading to a amenity=parking with a information=board and paths leading 
from where, then that first road should probably be highway=service

Often we have Mapillary images of "tracks" that is recorded with a car.

>  (Even if it does on Fridays, if I'm there and watching the other six days of the week, I'm going to miss it).  Instead, I'm going to describe the road as "what I see and experience as to what is on the ground," as I've been admonished to do many times in many ways.  Perfect prediction of whether a tractor or logging truck does or will drive over it has never been my concern, and even today, I'm not sure it should.  Asking mappers to wait to see if a garbage truck or a school bus uses a track and saying "don't map it if not" is a clear case of "perfection being the enemy of the good."  I'll do a "good" job of mapping a track, thank you very much, and if somebody else (or even me if and when I learn more) want to tag it perfectly, that can wait for another day, all without breaking OSM.
> 
> Ladies and gentlemen, this very lengthy thread reveals many difficult aspects of tagging:  historical vs. newer, how to educate novices and expert mappers alike, wide variability in different world regions and much more.  While it's great to discuss, let's understand the scope of what's being asked, discussed and how things might be solved in the context of how we HAVE solved things:  not always by a new tagging scheme or tweaks to renderers (though, those are important when warranted) but by wide knowledge of what we're trying to do and that there are many, many voices, levels of understanding and interpretations of definitions, even with the highest of ethics and good intentions.  As all of us and our good intentions and wide levels of understanding bump and grind against one another, let's remember that we share the same goals of creating and continuing to create "a better map that is always getting better" and we'll likely criticize each other less as we realize that there are many paths to those goals, not a single one right way to do things.
> 
> SteveA
> 
> [1] https://wiki.osm.org/w/index.php?title=Key:surface&oldid=14004
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-- 
Niels Elgaard Larsen