[Talk-us] California Coastal Trail

[Tod Fitch]

> On Sep 6, 2021, at 10:40 AM, stevea <steveaOSM at softworkers.com> wrote:
> 
> . . .
> 
> 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!
> 
> . . .
> 

Looking the the information for this trail system, it looks like it might present some issues for fitting into the OSM schema. “While primarily for pedestrians, the Trail also accommodates a variety of additional user groups, such as bicyclists, wheelchair users, equestrians, and others as opportunities allow.” [1] But looking their map legend [2] in addition to access links, etc. I see distinct markings for “Primary CCT”, “Secondary CCT”, “Beach or Shoreline Route CCT” and “Bike-Only CCT”.

My first guess is that at least two OSM route relations will be needed: One for the bicycle route and one for the foot/pedestrian/hiking route. They don’t always go over the same ways, in my area they are separated for most of the distance through the town.

Focusing on the foot/hiking route, there are still up to three ways that might go through an area: “Primary”, “Secondary” and “Beach or Shoreline”. I am not sure how to handle that. My first cut has been to put the most used way into the OSM route relation (non-scientific, just my observation from my daily exercise along the sections I know best).

And I am not sure how to tag the beach/shoreline alternatives for sections that I know are only passable during low tide. Is there a low tide conditional access tagging scheme?

For the beach/shoreline sections, I have forgotten where I saw suggestions on how to map a “trail” which can be anywhere along a beach from the time/tide dependent water line up to the edge of any scrub, cliff, etc. My initial searching on the wiki, help forum, mail lists, etc. have come up short. surface=sand seems reasonable but about visibility? The trail is not visible at all, just somewhere between the ocean on one side and the railway tracks/cliff/scrub/seawall/etc on the other. But the only trail visibility tagging [3] I am aware of would probably have either “horrible” or “no” values which call for either advanced or excellent orientational skills. But there is no “orientational skill” needed here, just walk along the beach.

The more I look at their map and map legend the more questions I have. For example, on the north side of town they show a bicycle only section going on what the city officially designates as a multi-purpose trail. It is designed as a cycleway but is open to, and heavily used by, skaters, walkers, runners, etc. Is it on the CCT map as bicycle only because it looks like a cycleway or was it explicitly not listed as primary CCT because they are planning some alternate way through there for foot traffic (none exists now other than the flooded other than at very low tide beach/shoreline way)?

Questions, questions, questions. . .

—Tod

[1] https://www.coastal.ca.gov/access/ca-coastal-trail/coastal-trail.html
[2] https://the-california-coastal-trail-1-coastalcomm.hub.arcgis.com/apps/2ef96f867a644cdeab90d213b7577ab4/explore
[3] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:trail_visibility
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