[OSM-talk] Tracks and there place in society

Ben Robbins ben_robbins_ at hotmail.com
Sat May 21 11:17:37 BST 2011


Simon:

There is no such thing as a track as an access right in the UK.  I merely give this example becuase I am talking generally, and apparently they do exist elsewhere, and this has been insistend relentlessly by others in the past, so I'm just going with that.  In the UK there is no use for highway=track at all, but it's not 'just a UK' thing.

I agree that the origins of the highway tag can be ignored and that they started in with UK definitions doesn't matter.  It's what we now have that matters.  The rendering rule sheets on OSM's main page are not listening it seems to what there is now.  If it did, the highway=byway/bridleway/foot-way would be a rarely used tag within the UK.  It is not.  I think justifying why something is a mess doesn't make it justification for leaving it as such.

The problem is having highway=bridleway with highway=track.  Now as Richard B said there is now the designation tag so highway=track and designation=public bridleway can be done.  However this isn't rendered either at all, or if it were would clash and not render correctly (brown dash for track with yellow dash for byway on mapnik).  Freemap seems to asume that highway=byway is another way of saying it's a road.  Which is odd becuase byways may be on a tarmacked road (can only think of 1 i've seen), but they are also on tracks or just grass.  In this example the byways are mere tire tracks in the grass: http://www.free-map.org.uk/freemap/index.php?zoom=16&lat=52.09726&lon=-1.06801&layers=B

Now the 'designation' option could work.  3 things then need to be done.  1) It just needs to be listened to and rendered.  WIth logic. 2)  'access' rights should be removed from the Highway tag.  2) There should be consideration as to what the difference is between route= and designation= really is, and why there under different keys.

Richard Fairhurst:

This is talking about highways in general, and the render rule-sheets. The fact that the problem is exposed within the UK does not make it UK specific.

Ben

 		 	   		  
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