Key:tracktype

Tracktype is a measure of how well-maintained a track or other road is, particularly regarding surface firmness. It usually applies to highway=track but is often used for non-tracks too, especially in less-developed places where many main roads are unpaved. The proposal from which this key originates may be found at Proposed features/grade1-5. The proposal was voted on, but was standardised primarily because of its widespread use.

tracktype=* is rendered on the Standard tile layer on the main OpenStreetMap site, as an elaboration on just highway=track.

surface=* refers to surface material and sometimes to material structure. It may suggest a track type sometimes, but because the same surface material/structure can exhibit various degrees of firmness, it is still advisable to add tracktype=*.

smoothness=* in addition provides a classification scheme regarding the physical usability of a way for wheeled vehicles.

Values

Key	Value	Element	Comment	Rendering	Photo
tracktype	grade1		Solid. Usually a paved surface (called also  Sealed road).
tracktype	grade2		Mostly solid. Usually an unpaved track with surface of gravel mixed with a varying amount of sand, silt, and clay. See Gravel road on Wikipedia. May be applicable to heavily degraded and crumbled roads which was paved in past.
tracktype	grade3		Even mixture of hard and soft materials. An unpaved track.
tracktype	grade4		Mostly soft. An unpaved track prominently with soil/sand/grass, but with some hard or compacted materials mixed in.
tracktype	grade5		Soft. An unimproved track lacking hard materials, uncompacted, with surface of soil/sand/grass.
tracktype	<no value>		If no tracktype tag is present, the track is rendered with a dot-dash line style (as shown right).		Photo not applicable

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Additional set of example pictures, from initial proposal

Applied to

It is primarily used in combination with highway=track (around 96% of uses) but it has also noticeable usage on highway=service, highway=path, highway=unclassified. This tag is useful to provide info about road quality, especially for unpaved roads.

Possible tagging mistakes

grade=*

More details at taginfo

• grade=* ‒ less commonly used as a mistake for grades=*

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

See also

• mtb:scale=* - A classification scheme for the difficulty of trails for mountainbiking
• sac_scale=* - A difficulty rating scheme for hiking trails
• horse_scale=* - A rating scheme for the difficulty of trails for trail riding