This is a static archive of our old OpenStreetMap Help Site. Please post any new questions and answers at community.osm.org.

How to tag military roads appropriately

In my area there are a few roads through a military area that are tagged inconsistently. Some are "service road" and some are "unclassified road". I am pretty sure they should be the same thing, but I don't know which one. And I don't know what other tags I should put there. Some context:

There are a couple roads that lead through the military area. They are somewhat useful connections between surrounding areas.
They are quite nice to ride on. Well maintained and nice forest.
The roads are normally open to non-motorized civilian vehicles or pedestrians.
They are closed to motorized civilian vehicles.
They are obviously used by military vehicles.
Occasionally (rarely) they are closed for the public.
If you use them, you have to follow a couple rules, most notably, you can't leave the roads inside the military area and just go through the forest.

roads tags

asked 14 Sep '21, 15:23

Bernhard
26●1●1●2
accept rate: 0%

edited 14 Sep '21, 16:48

One Answer:

It shouldn't make a difference if the roads are inside a military area or not.

First of all the road type (highway=*) should be selected based on its individual importance or function. It could be tertiary, unclassified, track or even something else. Take a look at the descriptions on the wiki to select the best.

Then you have to set the appropriate access tags. From your description I guess it could be motor_vehicle=private and access=permissive, meaning the road is generally open to non-motorized traffic but this permission may be revoked. If there are certain times where the roads are closed generally (e.g. at night or Monday-Wednesday) you should apply conditional restrictions.

answered 14 Sep '21, 16:54

TZorn
12.3k●7●64●225
accept rate: 15%

Ok, thanks, then I guess tertiary seems reasonable. And service seems inappropriate. I mean, it also serves as the service road for the military facilities, but as a civilian, that's not relevant and it's more like a lower grade connecting road.

(14 Sep '21, 19:09) Bernhard