[Talk-us] Gravel roads and surface tags in the US

Dave Swarthout daveswarthout at gmail.com
Thu Apr 19 02:47:46 UTC 2018


This topic gets revisited from time to time and as you'll see, opinions
differ about how to tag these surfaces. For your example, I would tag it as
surface=gravel and tracktype=grade1. You can also include a smoothness=*
tag to further characterize its drivability.

I have never seen a highway for automotive or truck use that used railroad
ballast for a surface. And if I did, I would avoid driving on it at all
costs.

On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 4:36 PM, Jack Burke <burkejf3 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've been tagging roads like that as compacted, once I learned more about
> the surfacing tech.
>
> -jack
>
> --
> Typos courtesy of fancy auto spell technology
>
> On April 18, 2018 6:19:07 PM EDT, Toby Murray <toby.murray at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I recently bought a gravel bicycle to ride on the many gravel roads in
>> Kansas. Like this one:
>> https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=nYO4JI46L0SWzNAQlLT4kA&focus=photo
>>
>> First question: What would you call this road? Obviously I am calling
>> it a "gravel road" but a couple of people have said they would call it
>> a "dirt road" so I'm curious if there are any other common terms to
>> describe this type of road in different regions of the US.
>>
>> Second question: How would you tag this road? There is a
>> surface=gravel tag that is in pretty common usage in Kansas and
>> neighboring states. However looking at the wiki page for the surface
>> tag[1], this is not wiki-correct. According to that page
>> surface=gravel is to be used for large rocks (4-8cm) that are laid
>> down loosely like those typically used as ballast on railroad beds. I
>> believe The Mapillary picture I linked to would be considered
>> surface=compacted according to the wiki because the rocks are much
>> smaller and the surface is stabilized with a binding agent. There is a
>> big difference between the two when it comes to bicycle riding.
>> Railroad ballast is bone jarring and flat tire inducing whereas gravel
>> roads are pretty manageable on the right kind of bike.
>>
>> But If you call something a "gravel road" and there is a "gravel"
>> option in the editor preset for the surface tag, people are going to
>> choose the gravel option and not look for "compacted" since that is
>> not a common term here. I assume it is a more common term in the UK
>> and that is why it is used in OSM.
>>
>> And lastly there are trails that are surfaced with a similar material
>> but crushed to a smaller size like here:
>> https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=iQNqP-dfQ-Rm6AD9REMsgQ&focus=photo
>>
>> I'm trying to decide if that is better as surface=compacted or
>> surface=fine_gravel although fine_gravel seems to be a slightly
>> different process from what I see on the wiki.
>>
>> Maybe this should be directed at the tagging list but I thought I
>> would get thoughts from the US community since we seem to be the ones
>> using the tag incorrectly (according to the wiki)
>>
>> [1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:surface
>>
>> Toby
>>
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-- 
Dave Swarthout
Homer, Alaska
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Travel Blog at http://dswarthout.blogspot.com
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