[Talk-us] Labeling forestry service roads/tracks

[brad]

Hmmm, interesting.   I'm not sure they compact very many roads around 
here (CO).  Maybe a regional difference.  It seems like they put a thick 
layer of gravel on and let the traffic compact it.   Not fun to ride on 
with a bike, or a motorcycle.
Do rocks tend to come to the surface of a compacted road and create a 
ball bearing interface?   If they grade it after initial construction, 
do they subsequently compact it again too?

On 7/19/20 9:27 PM, Kevin Kenny wrote:
>
> On Sun, Jul 19, 2020 at 9:29 PM brad <bradhaack at fastmail.com 
> <mailto:bradhaack at fastmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Thanks for diving in.   If it's a very minor unimproved road and
>     not clearly service, I usually tag it track.   I would suggest
>     adding some indication of road quality.   If it's an improved
>     gravel road, I consider surface=gravel sufficient.   If it's
>     rougher than an improved gravel road, surface=unpaved (in my area
>     the surface is usually a mix of dirt, rocks, gravel, so unpaved
>     seems best),   and smoothness=very_bad (high clearance), or
>     horrible (4wd) 
>     [https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:smoothness], or 
>     4wd_only=yes .
>
>
> A nit: most 'improved' gravel roads are surface=compacted.  'gravel' 
> is like rail ballast; a compacted surface ordinarily has a mix of fine 
> gravel and even finer material such as sand, and is rolled. Americans 
> will often refer to a compacted road as a 'dirt' or 'gravel' road but 
> the difference is like night and day when you're driving on one!
>
> For the rougher stuff, 'smoothness' is essential. Consider also 
> 'tracktype', which addresses more the firmness of the surface rather 
> than its smoothness. A clay surface may be lovely in a dry season and 
> impassable in a wet one, despite having a fast enough slump that the 
> surface is deceptively smooth.
>
> Some National Forests separate Forest Highway (a regular access road) 
> and Forest Road (usually a logging track, might be inaccessible in any 
> given season, and often passable only to logging trucks and similar 
> high-clearance off-road vehicles). I don't know if any of them overlay 
> the numbering of the two systems.
>
> _Please_ create route relations!