Ideally, I'd say that most snowmobile routes should be relations, not ways. At least in the places I'm familiar with (New England and Montana), a significant portion of the snowmobile trail network overlaps with seasonal roads that are open to wheeled traffic in some conditions. Having the summer ground truth mapped accurately is hugely helpful if you're poking around in the summer, whether it be hiking, biking, riding an on/off-road motorcycle, etc; as you noted, some snowmachine trails are virtually invisible in the summer and may even be impassable (I'm familiar with some spots in Vermont where the snowmachine trails transit across swamp or marshland once it's frozen—not something you want to try to cross on foot or wheeled vehicle).
Around here, there's also the side issue of someone having mapped one of the ITS routes as a track for a long distance, when it actually should be a series of ways with different data, as some parts are well-maintained gravel roads in the summer, others are less-well-maintained, some are public ways and others aren't. To answer the question about sections that specifically cross fields: I'd still be tempted to tag that as highway=track, with appropriate access and surface tags. I'm not sure it's the best way to do it, but I can't come up with a better way, and the track in question would likely be passable with permission and the right vehicle. As for sections that cross [frozen] marshes, or other areas that aren't passable when the ground is thawed, I don't know. Maybe there is a use case for "highway=frozen" or something similar, as ice_road is applied to another way, and none of the highway= values with which I'm familiar would make sense. On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 10:41 AM Bob Gambrel <rjgamb...@gmail.com> wrote: > Am newby to talk-us. This may have been discussed in the past but not > handy with searching archives yet. > > In Minnesota I have seen snowmobile trails mapped in OSM as follows: > > highway=track > snowmobile=designated > surface=unpaved > > In both aerial photos and observation on the ground, there is almost > always no track visible. In the winter, with snow cover, the location of > the track is visible because it is compacted by snowmobiles. In the spring > there might be some evidence in areas with grasses that would have been > tamped down by the snowmobiles. > > Question: Is this the right way to map snowmobile trails? The thing that > concerns me, of course, is the use of "track" because of it is not apparent > most of the time. > > Another question: is there a forum or expert group or something that > discusses this? I would like to join that conversation if there is one > going on. > > I think it is a good idea to map these trails. It seems there maybe should > be another type of highway? Something like: "not visible on the ground most > of the year". Note that ice_road=yes is not appropriate here (in most > cases) as (in most cases) these trails are not on frozen water bodies. > > As further info, where I was able to observe there are a number of signs > posted such as stop signs, caution signs, etc. So there clearly is > government involvement. > > Any thoughts? > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-us mailing list > Talk-us@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us > -- Kevin Broderick k...@kevinbroderick.com
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