I'm usually talking about mapping in much more remote areas, and I've been using 'track' more to denote more road quality. In some of the places I go, there are public rights-of-way that haven't been maintained by the counties in decades, that would still be lawful to drive on if you had a vehicle that could do it. They range from "completely grown to trees but you can most likely ride an ATV" through "mostly used for forestry, and high-clearance vehicles shouldn't have much problem, but don't try it in a passenger car" to "pea gravel and sugar sand that someone grades once a season, used as an auto road in the summer and a snowmobile track in the winter." The first is "highway=path" with appropriate notations for what uses are permitted, the second is "highway=track" (I could add "access=yes" but I thought that was the default for all highways); the third I'm less sure about, and I'm inconsistent between "track" and "unclassified" (with restrictions of 15 May-15 October, or whatever the season is). These are all roads where I have to keep reassuring my city-bred wife, "yes, this is a public road, even if it looks like an abandoned driveway!" when driving a 4WD down one.
These are all legally public highways. Many of them are of a classification that allows a landowner to gate them to restrain livestock while allowing the stock to cross the road, as long as the gate is left unlocked so that a traveler can pass, so they might be gated and still public. On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 12:23 PM, Greg Troxel <g...@ir.bbn.com> wrote: > > Eric Ladner <eric.lad...@gmail.com> writes: > >> On Sat, Jun 4, 2016 at 5:58 AM Greg Troxel <g...@ir.bbn.com> wrote: >> >>> >>> Kevin Kenny <kevin.b.kenny+...@gmail.com> writes: >>> >>> > OK, 'residential' if it looks like 'subdivision', 'unclassified' >>> > otherwise (as long as it's drivable in, say, my daughter's car rather >>> > than my 4-wheeler). Got it. >>> >>> I also see a distinction between residential/unclassified as denoting a >>> legal road (around me, carved-out parcel wise from the surrounding land) >>> vs track and some service denoting a non-legal-road. However, others >>> see the physical and legal attributes as separate. >>> >> My understanding of the description of "unclassified" is unclassified is a >> step between residential and tertiary. It's a connecting road, minor >> connector, whatever, that doesn't have residential on it, but it's not high >> enough in classification to make it a tertiary road. > > I agree with that notion. > >> I usually use it for roads in industrial complexes, loops around malls, >> business complexes, or other connectors/roads where there's no obvious >> residential around. > > Mostly agree, but I only use it for legal roads, not driveways or > private roads. Meaning someplace where (in new england) it's legally > separate and the public has a right of access. _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
