So I’ve been working on mapping the web of OHV trails, tracks, and social trails out around Nevada and I’ve been running into the issue of whether the stream or trail tag should take priority, since most of the time they sorta flop back and forth between each other depending on the season. My first thought would be that “trail” should take priority for the sake of navigation, but the consequences of a stream being in the way are somewhat higher. Anyone got any feedback/thoughts on how to handle this?
Edit: Professor had the thought of colocating “intermittent stream” and trails where the waterflow follows the track. Would this screw with the pathfinder’s cost analasys?
You can tag something as simultaneously waterway=stream and highway=track, even if iD (the map editor on osm.org) doesn’t make that immediately obvious. Probably best to add intermittent=yes and seasonal=yes to reflect the seasonal nature of it.
In desert areas where trails and tracks often follow dry washes, I do exactly as @Richard suggests: One way with both the waterway and highway tags on it. The tags used on highways and the tags used on waterways are different and do not conflict so having both on a feature is not a problem as far as the OSM data model is concerned.
I have received some pushback but not any that am aware of from mappers who live in or visited arid and semi-arid locations where seasonal or ephemeral water courses are often used as travel routes.
I am not sure what tools you are using that allow one type of feature to “take priority” over another. As far as OSM is concerned they are simply ways that have tags. Up to the data consumer to decide what to do with the mess.