[Talk-us-massachusetts] Strava heat map

[Andrey]

I want to give two examples where the heat map shows people traveling over
terrain that should not be mapped as trails:

1. https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#17.00/-71.70173/44.13935/bluered/run
This is Lonesome Lake in NH where many people shortcut through the frozen
lake for winter hikes. This one's rather obvious.

2. Bushwacks. The whole point is that there is no trail. Yet someone mapped
this out as a legit trail:
https://opentopomap.org/#map=15/44.11130/-71.59000
Here's the heat map view:
https://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#15.92/-71.59229/44.11241/bluered/run

I haven't been here but it sounds like there's no official, maintained
trail here. The problem with that is that it "probably provides false
confidence to folks who let their navigation skills down as it does
disappear on occasion" - for a lengthier discussion see
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?59380-Wow-Black-Pond-quot-Bushwhack-quot

On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 8:02 PM, Greg Troxel <gdt at lexort.com> wrote:

>
> > Some of you may have seen a reference to Strava heat maps in the news.
> > Check it out.  You get very interesting information about the use of
> > trails.  You can select usage for type of activity, like running, biking,
> > or winter activities.  (NB The type of activity is chosen by the user,
> and
> > they can choose incorrectly.)
>
> Not that you suggested this, and thus this note is directed at the list
> and not you:
>
> I think we should not add trails based on strava heatmap only, without
> seeing things actually on the ground.  We should be particularly careful
> about adding trails on private land from strava.
>
> In my town, there are issues with mountain bikers riding where they are
> not allowed.  So there may be apparent bike trails that are properly
> tagged as bicycle=no, and even foot=no depending on the local rules.
> And, there may not really be a trail, just a few people that went
> someplace in relatively open forest.
>
> (That's a good point about people identifying themselves after
> snowmobiliing where it's prohibited; I will have to let our conservation
> coordinator know about this :-)
>
> I realize we want to map trails that exist, not just trails that
> managers approve of, but when the existence of a non-approved (and even
> prohibited) trail is the least bit iffy, I usually choose not to map it.
>
> Which is a long way of saying please only add trails that you actually
> have seen.  (I believe I have some cleanup to locally because of such
> additions, but I haven't figured out the details.)
>
> _______________________________________________
> Talk-us-massachusetts mailing list
> Talk-us-massachusetts at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us-massachusetts
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us-massachusetts/attachments/20180201/e32ee0b2/attachment.html>