[Talk-us] Scenic/Historic byways

Phil! Gold phil_g at pobox.com
Mon Jul 9 17:16:26 BST 2012


* Toby Murray <toby.murray at gmail.com> [2012-07-08 14:20 -0500]:
> Closer to home I have also seen a "Scenic Byway" sign. This seems to
> be an official designation by the US DOT as discussed here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Scenic_Byway

I've done a bit of reading about these, mostly as they pertain to
Maryland.  It appears that most of those are also state-designated scenic
byways, and a state will probably have other scenic byways that are not
nationally recognized.

> So how do we map these?

In Maryland, the state has a brochure showing more or less where the
byways are, and they're not entirely consistently signed[0].  I've put one
into OpenStreetMap[1] and tagged it much as you did the Western Vistas
Historic Byway, but I used a network of US:MD for lack of a better
option.  (US:MD:Scenic Byway might make sense, too.)

I think the state-based scenic byways should have state-specific network
tags.  There are a few that are not state scenic byways, like Skyline
Drive in Virginia.  I'm not sure what would be a good network for those.

I think the best way to handle National Scenic Byways and All American
Roads is just to add national_scenic_byway=yes and all_american_road=yes
tags (sorry) to the route relations as appropriate.  That probably doesn't
address your Historic Byway, but I haven't read anything about those.


[0] I've been on three of Maryland's scenic byways since I started paying
    attention to them, and have only followed one for its entire length.
    That one (the Horses and Hounds Scenic Byway) only has signs right
    before the byway turns onto other roads and those signs do not
    indicate which way the byway turns.  The Catoctin Mountin Scenic Byway
    (also a National Scenic Byway) more or less runs along the entire
    length of US 15 in Maryland and has signs dotted along the side of the
    road.  The Star Spangled Banner Scenic Byway runs along most of the
    length of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, but I've only seen one
    sign on the B-W Parkway--on the northbound side, just before MD
    175--and it doesn't have the name of the scenic byway on it.

[1] http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2188238



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