Proposal:Trafficability

trafficability
Proposal status:	Abandoned (inactive)
Proposed by:	BGNO
Tagging:	trafficability=*
Applies to:
Definition:	Key for mapping the physical condition under which a given traffic way is trafficable.
Statistics:
Draft started:	2013-12-28
RFC start:	2014-01-01

Description

The purpose of the key is to map the physical condition under which a given traffic way is trafficable.

Examples:

• There are roads that can be used only at low tide. In those cases the information shall be mapped as follows:
  trafficability = low_tide
  
• In some countries certain river beds are used as roads, which are only trafficable for cars when the river is dry, which is outside the rainy season. Example:
  trafficability = outside_rainy_season
  
• Ice roads. There are ice roads which can be used all the year (in the Antarctic), whereas ice roads over frozen lakes are usually trafficable during winter only.
• Winter roads. Some winter roads have sections which can not only be used in winter. Furthermore the trafficability can depend on the vehicle or transportation mode. In those cases the trafficability should be indicated in a finer grained way than is currently possible. Example:
  winter_road = yes
  trafficability = winter
  trafficability:motorcar = winter; summer
  trafficability:off_road_vehicle = all_the_year
  

Rationale

The new key proposed here offers a unified way to map trafficability of various kinds of traffic ways. It can be a significant help for route-planning.

Advantages

• Unified notation. Instead of introducing different notations for the same purpose, the same notation can be used anywhere. (ice roads, winter roads, tidal roads, etc.)
• General applicability. The feature is not only for certain traffic ways. It can be used for roads as well as for any other traffic way. (e.g. Proposed features/Tidal_road and Proposed features/Tidal_path)
• The suggested notation allows to differentiate between transportation modes, so that trafficability can be notated depending on the vehicle.

Why not use access=* or opening_hours=* instead of a new key?

Because access and opening_hours stand for legal restrictions whereas the trafficability stands for the physical conditions. These types of information are independent and should consequently be tagged independently.

Values

The values describe the condition under which the traffic way is trafficable:

• trafficability=outside_rainy_season
• trafficability=low_tide
• trafficability=winter

See also

• Humanitarian_OSM_Tags/practicability
• Key:smoothness
• Proposed features/Tidal_road
• Proposed features/Tidal_path
• Proposed features/Winter roads
• Key:winter_road
• Key:ice_road

Comments

See Talk:Proposed_features/trafficability.