[Talk-us] Is the distinction between path and track dependent upon...

[derrick nehrenberg]

...designated forms of travel or width of the trail?

Here are two osm wiki references:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=path
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=track


Here is an example area:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/note/105329#map=14/37.9421/-122.1399&layers=N


In this example area of Briones Regional Park, no motorized vehicles are
permitted, and the trails are mostly signed hiking, horse, and biking only.
However, nearly all the trails are tagged highway=track, because the trails
are wide. Here is a link to an official map of the park:

http://www.mappery.com/map-of/Briones-Regional-Park-Trail-Map


Seeing a map of a non motorized regional park filled with trails tagged as
tracks misrepresents the recreational nature of the park in my opinion. I
would like to change the tags of the trails in parks like this to
highway=path, horse=yes, bicycle=yes, but I want to avoid "destructive
edits" if indeed the highway=track is the better tag.

In my opinion highway=track designates some type of full-size motor vehicle
travel (e.g. 2WD cars, 4WD trucks, and tractors), whereas highway=path
designates either non motorized travel (e.g. hiking, horse, bicycle) and
less-than full size motor travel (snowmobile, motorcycle, ATV, etc.).
Furthermore, it seems rather counter-intuitive to prefer highway=track if
tags like horse=yes, bicycle=yes, motorcycle=yes are subsequently used.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Derrick
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