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

[Attila Kun]

Well, I was the one who converted some of the "fractioned" roads in WV 
to tracks, but I think it should be reclassified as unclassified as far 
as I read and then surface=unpaved, I think it would be logical. The 
reason I'm writing this because when I checked my emails, I saw that I 
got a notification from WV wiki page getting 
changed(https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/West_Virginia), and I read 
that there is serious doubt. I just really don't know how to properly 
tag those. I also tag track as farming, but because that's the proper 
use of it to mark agricultural roads as tracks.

I also read that you want feedback about hearing from a local WV mapper. 
To be honest, there is barely any WV mapper outta in the US, but 
recently (2 months ago) I gotta know RoccoAWD who has lived in WV for a 
while and has a property in Rock Creek which is near Beckley. I might 
ask her to give a suggestion what to use for as an unpaved road.

Ottwiz

*

Brian M. Sperlongano* zelonewolf at gmail.com 
<mailto:talk-us%40openstreetmap.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BTalk-us%5D%20Usage%20of%20highway%3Dtrack%20in%20the%20United%20States&In-Reply-To=%3CCAMrfQx1CqwV%2B7GKPHyP7A38Czpt42%2BHmrAsu%2BZ%2BXmXqdhsPAcQ%40mail.gmail.com%3E>
/Fri Feb 19 23:56:17 UTC 2021/

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------------------------------------------------------------------------

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  <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=track>
[2]https://osmus.slack.com/archives/C2VJAJCS0/p1613754200382000  <https://osmus.slack.com/archives/C2VJAJCS0/p1613754200382000>

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