[talk-au] Highway=path

[David Clark]

On 2 June 2014 10:15, David Clark <[1]dbclark at fastmail.com.au> wrote:

I've been mapping stuff on OSM for a while but I've recently started
doing

my own rendering for gps. From this I've gained a new insight into the

highway=path tag so am posting here.



Firstly my focus is on tracks and trails so that is where I'm coming
from.



For a long time I've been tagging for the renderer, using

highway=footway for paved footways and highway=path for unpaved

footways. I only just realised that this is wrong and I should use the

surface tag for that.



The basics of what I have noticed is that a lot ways are tagged
highway=path

with no other information. I have found this to be a difficult problem
when

it comes to rendering. The highway=path tag is a little different to
the

other highway tags.



Firstly it covers quite a broad range of features for

walking, cycling, horse riding.



The modes of transport permitted is usually covered by the tags,

foot=yes

bicycle=yes

motorcycle=yes

horse=yes



Secondly it has no default surface type. For

example roads default is paved unless otherwise specified,
highway=track

defaults to unpaved. Highway=path doesn't have a default.



It would be safe to assume that if there is no surface tag, then it is

most likely unpaved, most of the time if it were paved it would have

been tagged highway=footway or highway=cycleway.


I tried this assumption and found it didn't work. Many paths with no
other tags, some paved some unpaved with no consistency. I was hoping
the above assumption would work but it didn't. There are lots of
bushwalking tracks tagged highway=path and nothing else. Lots of paved
paths tagged highway=path and nothing else.







Before messing around with rendering I would tag as highway=path and
not

bother too much with the other assortment of tags. Partly this is
because

there are heaps of tags that can be used and there was no particular

direction on their priority or importance of use.



For rendering I really need a surface tag included to separate the
paths

into practical catagories. Having no surface tag results in such a
large mix

of data that it becomes impractial to define any further. However if
the

surface=paved,dirt.. whatever is used the usefulness of the data is

massively increased. For rendering I (and other examples of rendering I
have

seen) use the highway=path, surface=paved,dirt..etc tag to split the
data

into paths that are paved and paths that are not paved. This results in
a

practical ability to split surfaced paths (butumen, cement, pavers etc)
and

trails (gravel, dirt etc).



I'd like to see the difference between:



walking trails, dirt trails, single track etc.

highway=footway + surface=ground, highway=path + surface = ground,

what do you mean by single track?

and

paved paths, bitumen paths, concrete paths etc.

highway=footway + surface=paved,asphalt, concrete





Secondly I think this is worth adding to the Australian Tagging
Guidelines

wiki in some form. ie "Please add the surface=paved,dirt,..,.. etc when

tagging paths. Preferred minimum being paved or dirt."



There are a lot of bushwalking tracks tagged as highway=path, I think

that these should actually be highway=footway + surface=ground if they

are signposted as walking tracks.



Perhaps if they are just tracks with no sign postings then

highway=path applies? I'm not sure either way this primary key

highway=footway|path becomes less important when the way has a tags

for foot,bicycle,width,surface,sac_scale,etc.


The Australian Tagging Guidelines says to tag them highway=path,
foot=yes. I think surface=unpaved or dirt or ground should be included
too.


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References

1. mailto:dbclark at fastmail.com.au
2. mailto:Talk-au at openstreetmap.org
3. https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au
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