[Talk-us] California Coastal Trail

[stevea]

Hi Tod:  Thanks for your post and good work here.  I've had an encounter (or three?) with user:ALLstarGUY before:  he was sort of blustery and full of himself at first, yet when my tone was patient and warm with him, he responded in kind.  I believe he means well, though I'm not sure he strictly adheres to OSM's tenets of "map what is truly there."  This is exacerbated in OSM (not with this one particular mapper, and not with this one gigantic trail...) by many users, many trails and sometimes-ephemeral-seeming things to map and many differing attitudes towards what should be / can be / might be mapped, as well as how this is done.  I myself have found these edges blur sometimes and it isn't always easy for any individual mapper nor the community as a whole to harmoniously align with "here's what we're going to do, because this is the right way to do it" (in this case).  But I have also had the experience that with good, continuing dialog and perseverance (usually over many years, these are BIG data and OSM is a long-term project), "management of contributions" can be done with productive fun and accurate results.  It's part "herding cats," it's part "come on, community, let's pitch in with that OSM spirit" (and here are some not-difficult Wiki tips and shared wisdom on how).

The actual geography of the "California Coastal Trail" has proven to be a difficult thing to find authoritative data about, but your links refresh my efforts at finding and feeling comfortable using such data.  From your [1], I discover (again) there really is intention behind it:  "Today, roughly 70% of the CCT is complete, and the Coastal Conservancy has been tasked by the legislature to help complete it."  Yet, another link states in its FAQ section:  "Does the California Coastal Trail exist today?
Yes and no, it is a work in progress. Of the 1250 miles of coastline, about 50% of the CCT is available and is being used by thousands of people every day."

With your links (and other resources, especially geographical, like https://the-california-coastal-trail-1-coastalcomm.hub.arcgis.com ), OSM can only endeavor to mirror these efforts at least as well, much as we do for the very-much-constantly-under-construction-over-decades United States Bicycle Route System:  we enter into our map "what we definitely know exists and is mapped according to signs or official sources," even as these segments are widely scattered and discontiguous.  It's quite long-term, there is usually a dearth of dialog and this can lead to "am I doing this right?" and "is there anybody else out there?" sorts of questions.  Perseverance can address these!

I have no objection to and salute your efforts to further these data into a hiking trail, as the Coastal Conservancy says "pedestrian, bicycle and equestrian use..." and OSM does have those three route relation types, so each is appropriate.

Your post here is an excellent wake-up for our community to build awareness about the CCT (and similar long-distance trails) and encourage the sort of "we can do this" spirit that is found in OSM.  These really are jewels of opportunity for OSM to map, and map well.  What I'd really like to see is more comprehensive Wiki about these trails.  Your link [4] (United_States/Long_distance_trails) is a rough sketch at a high level (my contributions to it are six years old and older).  If we had more comprehensive sections in that Wiki for each (major) trail, I think we could continue to build community to strengthen the mapping data in our database.  It's great to see more interest in this / these trails in OSM!  (Let's Wiki them, let's map them).  This could be the start (or re-ignition, really) of something wonderful!

SteveA