[Talk-ca] Transient roads

[James Ewen]

On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 11:24 PM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:

>> There are a couple references to winter roads in the BC, Alberta, and
>> Manitoba wiki pages. Does anyone know of any examples of roads with
>> access restrictions based on time/season?
>
> The only thing I see in the data base so far is
>
> surface=ice_road, six times, and
> surface=ice, twice
> http://osmdoc.com/en/tag/surface/#values
>
> We find it mentioned here, under "surface=" which might not be
> optimal, but is true, and observable by other mappers.

Is there a way where I can link to the examples which are tallied in
the database? I see an XAPI link, which lets me download an osm file,
and a link labelled JOSM, which does nothing for me. There's also a
shortlink with a caution saying don't rely on ityet, which again does
nothing.

I'd like to be able to look at these examples to see what others are doing.

> access=seasonal may be our best bet for now, given than trying to be
> more-exact is likely to be more misleading.  After all, some maps
> don't even show where traffic_signals are located, and drivers still
> manage to obey them fairly often.  Perhaps we can count on drivers to
> not drive into open water?  ;-)

Seasonal access would be the best idea. There's no way that you put an
exact date on the ice roads as it all depends upon the weather.
Conversely, there are some mountain roads that are only accessible
during the summer months as there is no snow plowing done during the
winter. These I have seen depicted on printed maps as a dashed line,
with a tag along them saying "No Winter Access".

Obviously traffic lights only impede progress for a minimal amount of
time, so driving down a road and coming upon an unmarked traffic light
is only a minor inconvenience. Planning to drive through a mountain
pass, and finding 6 feet of snow on the road is a little more of a
wait... Even when the sun does come out, it still takes a while to
melt all the snow.

I would have thought that there would be some type of tag already that
could be used to show temporary access restrictions for ways.

James
VE6SRV