Great Lakes/Circle Tour

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Great Lakes Circle Tour (GLCT) is an international (Canada and USA) scenic road network circumnavigating each of the five Great Lakes (except the Ontario portion of Lake Ontario). These are road routes for automobiles (route=road relations) and may also be route=bicycle relations, as OSM also contains at least one GLCT route (LMCT) as a route=bicycle relation in addition to the route=road relations in the first table. So there are two tables: one for road routes, the other for bicycle routes (where only LMCT and its Alternate spurs are fully known and entered into OSM as of 2022-Q4). However, there is some question as to whether any bicycle routes are "as designated" (or "as legitimate") as the road routes. GLCT road routes are about 65% completed in OSM and GLCT bicycle routes are at least 20% completed.

Tagging

A way that is part of one of the five Great Lakes Circle Tour routes should be a member of a route relation. That relation should be tagged, at a minimum:

Standard practice creates one route relation for the extent of a Circle Tour route within a single state or province, for example, Lake Michigan Circle Tour in Wisconsin, Lake Erie Circle Tour in Ontario, etc. Then, relations are gathered into a superroute / super-relation for each Lake's Circle Tour route, as below. Do not add ways directly to a superroute relation/super-relation.

network=GLCT is recognized by OpenStreetMap Americana, which marks each route with a miniature version of the real-life sign. [1]

GLCT route=roads

Name ref=* Relation Status
Lake Superior Circle Tour LSCT relation 14650284 Fully mapped. (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario are mapped and included in this superroute relation).
Lake Michigan Circle Tour LMCT relation 14649955 Fully mapped (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana are mapped and included in this superroute relation). Please verify route in Wisconsin. Some roads in Michigan currently are tagged alt_name=Lake Michigan Circle Tour. It is possible that the LMCT and LMCT-Alt routes here as bicycle routes may contain many member elements which are identical to elements of the road route denoted here, in which case those elements should be harmonized with this superroute relation by including correct automobile infrastructure in the subordinate route=road relations. However, be cautious, because the LMCT and LMCT-Alt route=bicycle relations DO contain bicycle-only highway=cycleway elements, and these should not be included in any LMCT route=road relations included in this superroute. (Automobiles are prohibited on highway=cycleway infrastructure).
Lake Huron Circle Tour LHCT relation 14651941 Beginning to be mapped in OSM. Contains two subordinate relations in this superroute, one in Michigan and another in Ontario. However, each of these are only small seeds containing the Blue Water Bridge area around Port Huron and Port Edward and I-75 as Mackinac Bridge; nearly all of this route must be entered into the superroute's state and province relations. See here for the (problematic) "officially designated route." Also, see the Wikipedia link below for (poorly detailed) text-based route elements and some spurs, including a ferry to cross the mouth of Lake Huron's Georgian Bay from the Bruce Peninsula to Manitoulin Island and return.
Lake Erie Circle Tour LECT relation 14267695 Fully mapped. (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario are mapped and included in this superroute relation).
Great Lakes Seaway Trail (US-only portion of Lake Ontario) GLST relation 13063934 Fully mapped, but in a non-standard fashion, as a multi-state-spanning single route, not a superroute containing the two state-at-a-time routes (in New York and Pennsylvania). Unlike the other four Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is posted not as a Circle Tour but as part of the US-only Great Lakes Seaway Trail; the province of Ontario does not have a Lake Ontario Circle Tour route. Note there is some overlap between this route's elements and LECT.

GLCT route=bicycles

Right now it is unclear whether any Circle Tour route exists designated for bicyclists. Needed (and unknown) are definitive / authoritative route data for LSCT, LHCT, LECT and GLST (infrastructure bicyclists are specifically allowed / designated to route upon). If any of the LSCT, LHCT or LECT route=road relation elements (from above) partially clone into new LSCT, LHCT or LECT relations tagged route=bicycle (possible, if/as they do, enter them into the following table), additionally tag these with:

If the GLST route=road relation elements partially clone into a new GLST relation tagged route=bicycle, please also tag this new route=bicycle relation with cycle_network=GLCT, but not network=icn. GLST's network=* value might be network=rcn or network=ncn, as more discussion might reach better consensus on whether a GLST route=bicycle should be regional or quasi-national (it is domestic-to-the-USA only, so it would not be international, even as it is a member route of a largely-international network). Harmonize this with LMCT, now tagged network=rcn, but which also "wobbles" on whether it, too, might be considered quasi-national (network=ncn), especially as a GLCT network more fully grows in OSM.

Name ref=* Relation Status
Lake Superior Circle Tour LSCT No super-relation Not mapped. According to LSCT Adventure Guide, no specific bicycle route exists around Lake Superior. Were authoritative, definitive data to be found, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ontario would each need to be created, mapped and included in a newly-created super-relation.
Lake Michigan Circle Tour LMCT No relations Was fully mapped in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, but was deleted. Due to the evidence presented in the discussion tab, it became clear that this route does not meet the criteria for inclusion for bicycle route in OSM. Some history and archives (circa 2018-2019) about this route and how it entered OSM can be found at Lake_Michigan_Circle_Tour_Bicycle_Route.
Lake Huron Circle Tour LHCT No super-relation Not mapped. (Michigan and Ontario would each need to be created, mapped and included in this super-relation).
Lake Erie Circle Tour LECT No super-relation Not mapped. (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Ontario would each need to be created, mapped and included in this super-relation).
Great Lakes Seaway Trail (US-only portion of Lake Ontario) GLST No statewide relation for either New York or Pennsylvania
No super-relation 		USA-only. Not mapped as a super-relation containing the two state-at-a-time routes (in New York and Pennsylvania). Unlike the other four Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is posted not as a Circle Tour but as part of the US-only Great Lakes Seaway Trail; the province of Ontario does not have a Lake Ontario Circle Tour route. Note there is some overlap between this route's elements and LECT.

OSM encourages good growth with these emerging relations and super-relation for all GLCTs, as any of the other four route=road relations besides LMCT may partially clone into route=bicycle relations, if these cyclist routes are truly extant, while tracking the status of both route=road and route=bicycle relations in two tables for all five routes. As of 2022-Q4, these GLCT route=bicycle and route=road relations are somewhat fluid, so the tables' status and what is actually in OSM might drift. Please update!

External links

Retrieved from "https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Lakes/Circle_Tour&oldid=2479764"