[OSM-talk] Few questions on highway=track

DavidD thewinch at gmail.com
Mon Aug 6 22:42:42 BST 2007


On 06/08/07, Rik van der Helm <rik at the-quickest.com> wrote:

> My questions are about highway=track
> 1. Is this an 'approved' or a 'proposed' map_feature ? It appears in the
> map_features but without an approved icon next to it, but I can't find
> it in proposed map_features page. But still there are approved
> 'tracktypes' ??

I've no idea what the approved icon is supposed to indicate. AFAIK all
the tags on the map features page should either have been proposed and
approved or been one of the initial tags when the map features page
was first created.

> 2. Where can I find a proper description/definition of highway=track ?
> What are the default access-tags with this map_feature ? In NL people
> use this map_feature to tag unpaved roads with a general way of right.
> As far as I know tracks in UK it's mainly about agricultural roads
> without a general way of right, but partly permissive access for slower
> traffic.

I think it's more a privately owned and maintained road. Such as one a
farmer would build to access land. I don't think the surface is
important, they could just as easily be paved as unpaved. They often
are paved in heavy traffic areas or where new roads have cut through
farmland.

If it's a public road that is maintained by the state with the usual
access rights that just happens to be unpaved I don't think it's
really a track. I'd tag it as highway=unclassified; surface=unpaved.
That might render like a paved road which perhaps doesn't help with
the confusion.

> 4. This weekend out of the blue highway=unsurfaced popped up in the
> map_features. No proposal, no discussion, no nothing. Is this the
> regular way in osm ?

The map features page is just a normal wiki article. Anybody with an
account can edit it. So anyone can add a feature to the page with no
discussion. Normally it will quickly be removed if it hasn't been
through the proposal and approval system.

--
David




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