That is good description! But a big issue is: there a missing category below pedestrian, i.e.:
car > bicycle > pedestrian > HurdleHeroes [1]
IOW, there needs to be a category beyond even a pedestrian-oriented highway=path, on which an average human, without experience, training or special equipment should not be lead to (nor would they want to be lead to), as they are likely to get stuck and likely put their health and even life in serious danger.
But where Hurdle Heroes can still pass.
That would include everything requiring using hands in addition to feet (e.g. scramble), or requiring special equipment (e.g. overknee-boots for getting over those long fords, machete for widening that overgrown forest trail to make it passable, or ropes and ice axes and crampons for alpinists, etc.)
Once upon a time highway=demanding_path was suggested (with extra tag demanding_path=* detailing why in particular it isn’t regular garden path suitable for stroll in a park, in addition to all the other applicable tags like sac_scale, mtb:scale, trail_visibility, etc. )
By default that new tag would not be shown on general maps (which is a good thing!), so it specialty maps (like alpine hiking maps) would need to support is separately.
The benefit is great: those maps and data consumers which do not explicitly support it because that is their whole reason of existence (which will inevitable turn to be at least 95%+ of the maps) would not be showing those and putting people lives in danger. While those few that do require those will have both a way to specify generically problematic path (i.e. only highway=demanding_path) as well as specifying details (i.e. highway=demanding_path + demanding_path=* + other tags)
Yeah, that is by far the absolutely hugely biggest one!
I argued that it needs a separate tag value as that is the only way it could reasonable work. (and we have an example of such approach working: highway=via_ferrata - the only issue being that it is very specific one, and there is a need for more generic approach)
Because there is no way to even count zillions (past, existing and future ones) data consumers, much less to tell all of them (or provide PRs!) “by the way, this new tag, if used in addition to highway=path, makes this tiny percentage of paths not usable as a path for pedestrians” - so just adding a tag can’t work.
(Even long-standing tags like access=no and foot=no are not followed by 100% data consumers… imagine a chances of a newcomer tag)
The name itself does not matter much, but suggestions are welcome - if people prefer highway=terrain_titans_only to highway=demanding_trail or whatever, it is open to discussion.
Alternative names might include Terrain Titans, Obstacle Overcomers, Challenge Champions, Adversity Avengers, Difficulties Defeaters, Quagmire Quashers, Maneuvering Maestros, etc. ↩︎