National Park Service Road and Trail Restrictions

Overview

National Park Service trails and road serve many visitor uses and these uses can vary widely from unit to unit. It is important to classify these linear features with "allowed uses" or inversely "restricted uses" so that down-stream consumption of these data can symbolize, and more importantly, route visitor traffic when these data are viewed interactively. Fortunately within OSM and Places (and the JOSM editor) there are numerous preset "tags" which apply to both roads and trails! Many park roads and trails in GIS systems exist as a single line segment yet may have attribute changes such as speed limit along that segment, or a trail changes from horses allowed to not allowed in the middle of the trail. In those cases in the ID or JOSM editor simply split the line with a new node and then tag the two line segments accordingly.

Oneway

It is not necessary to tag a road or a trail as * oneway=no however linear travel features that have a restricted direction of travel should be tagged * oneway=yes with the line segment "flipped" such that the digitized direction of the line is in the direction of authorized travel.

No exit (cul-de-sac)

It is not necessary to tag a road or a trail as * noexit=no however linear travel features that have no possible transport at their end should be tagged * noexit=yes.

Foot

If pedestrian access on a road is explicitly recommend, allowed, or deemed safe then * foot=yes should be used. If in doubt use * foot=no. Most park trails will be tagged with * foot=yes.

Horse

All roads and trails should be tagged * horse=no if use of that feature by stock is not allowed or recommended and likewise should be tagged * horse=yes if stock is allowed. This is an important tag to consider when planning how stock traffic will navigate a parks transportation network. Not "tagging for horses" will imply that horses are allowed on all roads!

Bicycle

All roads and trails should be tagged * bicycle=no if use of that feature by cycling is not allowed or recommended and likewise should be tagged * bicycle=yes if cycling is allowed. This is an important tag to consider when planning how bicycle traffic will navigate a parks transportation network. Not "tagging for bikes" will imply that bikes are allowed on all trails!

Motor Vehicle

All roads and trails should be tagged * motor_vehicle=no if use of that feature by motor vehicles are not allowed or recommended and likewise should be tagged * motor_vehicle=yes if motor vehicles are allowed. This is an important tag to consider when planning how motor vehicle traffic will navigate a parks transportation network. Not "tagging for motor vehicles" will imply that motor vehicles are allowed on all trails! Do not confuse this tag with Administrative Access to "double-track" trails that are other wise closed to all but emergency service vehicles. Tagging a trail as * motor_vehicle=no will have no effect on emergency vehicle access to that trail.

Commercial Vehicles

All NPS roads and trails should be tagged * goods=no and * hgv=no to imply that commercial vehicles are prohibited from using most NPS travel routes. Obviously the NPS has to receive deliveries too! Delivery and tow operators receive permission prior to entering parks. A very frequent and expensive problem that many parks experience are very large HGV vehicles getting stuck on narrow and winding park roads resulting in lengthy closures of the park road to visitors as well as very expensive recoveries.

RV's and Tourist Buses

All roads and trails should be tagged * tourist_bus=no and * motorhome=no if use of that feature by oversize vehicles is not allowed or recommended and likewise should be tagged * tourist_bus=yes and * motorhome=yes if oversize vehicles are allowed. This is an important tag to consider when planning how oversize vehicle traffic will navigate a parks transportation network. Not "tagging for oversize vehicles" will imply that oversize vehicles are allowed on all roads! Please note the tour buses and RV's are very welcome to National Parks but there are restrictions on where they can navigate due to their size.

Speed Limit

All NPS roads should be tagged with a speed limit designation. Note in * maxspeed=25 mph that "mph" is included to designate that in the United States, National Park Service speed limits are indicated in Miles-per-hour.

Maximum Height

NPS roads that have a height restriction should be tagged with * maxheight=7'0". Note that feet and inches are annotated to comply with the unit of measurement on US road systems.

Maximum Weight

NPS roads that have a weight restriction should be tagged with * maxweight=12 t. Note that weight in metric tonnes are annotated to comply with the OSM style of weight annotation. You must use 1 (Imperial) short ton = 0.90718474 metric tons for any conversion. This tag would be commonly used when tagging a * bridge=*.

Maximum Width

NPS roads that have a width restriction should be tagged with * maxwidth=7'0". Note that feet and inches are annotated to comply with the unit of measurement on US road systems This tag would be commonly used when tagging a * bridge=*.