Tag trail_visibility: Proposed Improvements for this Descriptive Tag

General talk Tagging general discussion
,
60

Here’s two more proposed solutions after some further thinking,

Solution 1

  1. Keep trail_visibility as is (an effective path_visibility given it’s about the overall visibility of the highway=path object) with documentation to steer it clear of its original purpose. I and many others don’t read the not being about routes bit as addressing unclear signage at intersections (which isn’t a trail issue, it’s a junction issue) but as focusing it only on the physical impact upon the ground (worn/rutted track, footprints, lack of vegetation, lining stones, etc) vs the overall route itself.
  2. Create a new tag trail_surface_visibility that fulfills the original intent of the tag and explicitly exclude markers/trailblazed from it, referencing trailblazed on the trail_surface_visibility page.

Solution 2

This might just be a more US vs EU centric view, and probably isn’t worth the effort, but hey…

  1. Create a path_visibility tag as mentioned above but have it perform the same function as trail_visibility currently does (an alias in effect) and deprecate trail_visibility at some point merging things over to path_visibility. Some logic around picking the higher of either trail_visibility and trailblazed:visibility if they exist should solve most edge cases. Having them mean the same thing (while path is more accurate with how it is used now) should reduce the headache of trying to keep trail_visibility to it’s original intention and then have people start using path_visibility. This would also play well with highway=demanding_path potentially in the future.
  2. Create a new tag trail_surface_visibility that fulfills the original intent of the tag and explicitly exclude markers/trailblazed from it, referencing trailblazed on the trail_surface_visibility page. path_visibility will be used most often, but in cases where people want to comment on both the visibility of the trail/path itself and how it is marked that will be possible.