RfC Part 3: foot_scale=* (aims to describe global paths in a more helpful and informative scale than SAC)

[Adam_Franco]

@erutan

I think having this be a rarely used value helps break it apart from more commonly occurring scrambling while still respecting some countries (and hence users) expectations for what constitutes a path.

@erutan

There is often little to no sign of being a proper “path”, though it is a route that people have done before. Such terrain overlaps into UIAA I-II and YDS 5.5 difficulty.

My fear is that a Value 6: Technical Scrambling level will almost always be a troll-tag when used in conjunction with highway=path and will encourage mappers to further stretch the range of highway=path. This would exacerbate the problem of naive data consumers that don’t differentiate on foot_scale=* rendering all “paths” alike even if some of them are technical climbing routes.

This isn’t to say that foot_scale=* is limited to highway=path. It is totally appropriate to use for other highway=* values. For example, highway=via_ferrata+foot_scale=technical_scrambling might be a very appropriate combination for some via ferrata segments. One or more new highway values could be created to cover scrambles, climbing route approaches/descents (which are often at this grade), and/or mountaineering routes. Such new highway values could be an appropriate base tags to use for ways with foot_scale=technical_scrambling.