[Talk-us-massachusetts] Strava heat map

[Greg Troxel]

> 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.)
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