[Talk-us] Beaver dam? Wrecked bridge? Hallucinatory roads in TIGER?

[stevea]

Bryce writes:
>I've frequently wanted to map "the trails that peter out" for 
>exactly the reason you state.
>
>The choices as a mapper seem wrong:
>1) Map the trail : thus encouraging use of a flawed route.
>
>2) Don't map the trail.  The casual map reader thinks OSM is missing 
>something.
>
>Possible solutions include a node type of "becomes indistinct", or "dead end".

I have seen mapped (and done so myself) to good effect the tag 
"noexit=yes" at the end of such a path.  This might or might not 
render (depends) similar to the German "Dead End" sign.

>How to mark the way is trickier.

I have used tag "trail_visibility" [excellent, good, intermediate, 
bad, horrible, no] in decreasing quality to denote paths which 
eventually disappear.  I appreciate that our wiki characterizes "no" 
as "mostly pathless" and that "excellent orientational skills" are 
required.  This allows either a turn-back or bushwhacking, as the 
hiker desires.

SteveA
California