[Talk-us] Usage of highway=track in the United States

[Karson Sommer]

Personally, I use highway=track to denote public roads with minimum
maintenance and farmer's 2-track roads to their fields.

In Iowa there are roads called class B service roads. These roads typically
have 0 buildings along them. They were initially platted in the grid system
but don't really serve a purpose now. So the counties stop doing
maintenance and stick up a warning sign that it might not be passable. I
always classify these roads as highway=track because you would never want
to risk routing a car down one. When it rains they are a mudpit, some
sections are completely abandoned and overgrown, other sections have downed
bridges or require fording streams. These roads are only used by people out
running/biking and farmers accessing their fields.

IA Code § 309.57 :: 309.57 Area service classification. :: 2011 Iowa Code
:: US Codes and Statutes :: US Law :: Justia
<https://law.justia.com/codes/iowa/2011/titleviii/subtitle1/chapter309/309-57/>

level-b-service-road-iowa-2.jpg (768×576) (wp.com)
<https://i0.wp.com/heartlandtransplant.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/level-b-service-road-iowa-2.jpg?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1>


I also use the highway=track tag for farmer's 2-track roads that lead to
their fields. These are "roads" (I wouldn't call them that) on private
property exclusively used for agricultural purposes or for hunting.



On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 5:59 PM Brian M. Sperlongano <zelonewolf at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The usage of the tag highway=track is controversial.  Through
> discussion with both US-based and foreign mappers, it is apparent that
> this tag is used differently in the US than it is in the rest of the
> world.  Further, the usage in the US appears to be different from how
> it is documented on the OSM wiki[1].
>
> The wiki description is "roads for mostly agricultural use, forest tracks
> etc."
>
> In the US, the 2007 TIGER import assigned highway=track to CFCC code
> A51, which is described as "Vehicular trail, road passable only by 4WD
> vehicle, unseparated".
>
> In a recent Slack discussion[2], mappers shared their perspective on
> how they use highway=track:
>
> "I always use track for public, unmaintained highways and usually use
> track for discontinued roads. My thought is that if it used to be a
> road, and snowmobiles and ATVs can still use it, then track works
> (with access=permissive if applicable)" -aweech, New Hampshire
>
> "I use highway=path for trails that were formerly cut as forestry
> tracks (wide between trees), but are now only beaten in a single-track
> due to exclusively non-motorized usage." -adamfranco, Vermont
>
> "I use it for any rough, unmaintained looking track" -Zeke Farwell, Vermont
>
> "I use track for any road that would be irresponsible to route over
> because it might wreck a car, or isn’t cleared of snow, tree, or flood
> debris, or only used during some seasons.. the “purpose” of the road
> doesn’t matter to me." -bhousel, New Jersey
>
> "I don't think forestry and agriculture are bad reasons for a road to
> be a track, and that does indeed match the definition of a lot of
> tracks in Colorado. If it were expanded to include the fact that this
> use might be historical, and then add mining and other natural
> resource management, and unmanaged recreation, then you'd cover almost
> all of what we call tracks in the US" -phidauex, Colorado
>
> It appears that the US usage of highway=track follows more closely to
> the definition from the TIGER import, which is based on physical
> characteristics, rather than the wiki definition, which is based on
> usage.
>
> US mappers: how do you apply highway=track in the US?
>
>
> [1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=track
> [2] https://osmus.slack.com/archives/C2VJAJCS0/p1613754200382000
>
> _______________________________________________
> Talk-us mailing list
> Talk-us at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us/attachments/20210219/cb164270/attachment.htm>