[Talk-ca] A new available source of trail data in the Nanaimo area

[OSM Volunteer stevea]

On May 2, 2018, at 6:17 PM, Doug Hembry <doughembry at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I wanted to bring to the attention of Vancouver Island mappers a source of some trail data in the Nanaimo area...

After some back-and-forth consultation with the provider of the shapefile (Lynn, VP of the local horse riders association) regarding tagging considerations, I completed an upload after better understanding how these (largely equestrian) trails might be conflated with existing OSM data (which were pretty sparse, given the rural area).

If you wish to take a look at the area, it is https://www.osm.org/#map=16/49.0620/-123.9715 .  "Up now" (as Bill Maher says on HBO's Real Time) are what Lynn and I are calling v1, there will be a minor v2 update (some permissions and traffic mode tweaks, I may add better parking amenities, water sources, etc.) after Lynn answers my last few questions later this week.  Currently the trail data are tagged with four traffic modes [atv, bicycle, foot, horse], either designated (rare, as so is signage), permissive (largely) or yes (public roads or Crown Land, a minority of the curated area).  There may still be some considerations for snowmobiles, and/or some tracktype=gradeX fine-tuning as well as more precise harmonization with the Trans Canada Trail, but largely speaking, OSM now has these data, named, with length (but not width) and sometimes with surface/tracktype=grade data.

Post upload, I did add some satellite-imagery-visible larger-scale areas like large landuse=meadows cleared in the timberland, wetland=swamps (complementing CanVec data) and several landuse=quarries, which are rather numerous in the area.  All in all, a nice little "beef up" to this part of Vancouver Island in OSM.  Makes me want to get on a horse or a mountain bike and get out there!  (James, there are no "vulgar trail names," some of them are reminiscent of comic strip characters!)  A centrally-located (to the curated area) private inholding has all of its trails marked access=private, respecting the landowner's wishes to diminish trail use by riders who use widely-available maps (like OSM).

Lynn's initial reaction to seeing v1 tile was "I was quite pleased."  So except for the fine-tuning v2 we'll complete in a few days, Done!

If you live in the area and ride or hike here, you may now "smarten up" your phone or GPS with these named trails and very precise geo data.

OSM:  what a great project!

SteveA
California