[OSM-talk] Tracks and there place in society

[Richard Fairhurst]

Ben Robbins wrote:
> All we need is a phisical list, and an access list.

Um, we have that already.

For physical tags, we have:
    highway=footway, or
    highway=cycleway, or
    highway=bridleway, or
    highway=track

See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Duck_tagging. "If it quacks like a
duck, looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, call it a duck." If you want
to refine this further, there are other physical tags you can use, such as
surface=.

For access, we have, and always have had, "access tags" for particular
users. Such as:
    foot=yes
    horse=no
    bicycle=permissive

One of the keenest principles in OSM (and one which tag proponents would do
well to remember now and then) is that "we optimise for ease of mapping".
Mappers are scarce resources.

So tagging systems should not impose an extra burden on the mapper, which
means that there are long-established shortcuts that mappers can take. One
of those is that if it both quacks like a footway (physical) and has access
rights consistent with footways (access), you can infer one from the other.
So a rural public footpath in the UK would typically be tagged:
    highway=footway (physical, implies foot access)

But if it had additional permissions you could add
    highway=footway (physical, implies foot access)
    bicycle=permissive (access)

If it was only available because of the generosity of some owner or other,
you could add
    highway=footway (physical, implies foot access)
    foot=permissive (overrides the above)

If it was a bit bigger physically, you might want to change it to:
    highway=track
    foot=yes
    bicycle=no
    horse=no

There are other tags you can add to "ice the cake". surface= is the obvious
physical one. In the UK, we like the 'designation' tag, which adds the legal
icing to this particular cake, and which you can infer access values from.
And so on.

I know you've been away for a while, Ben, but it would help if you actually
read some of what's happened since then. In the UK we are all happily
mapping as per above and we really don't need someone who hasn't kept up
(that's fine, we all have busy lives) to blunder in without checking and say
"YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG". One other thing that has changed is that we now
have a tagging list, and even if you won't take this to talk-gb (which you
should), you should take it to tagging.

Richard



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