Proposal:Skating Comfort

Skating Comfort
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	Anticristi
Tagging:	skating_comfort=*
Applies to:	way
Definition:	Comfort of the asphalt for speed skating
Statistics:
Rendered as:	A colored path, from green (best) to red (worst).
Draft started:	2021-08-04

Proposal

I hereby propose the skating_comfort tag to capture how comfortable a route is for speed skating. The tag will hold a numeric value from 1 to 5 (higher means more comfortable), potentially followed by a minus sign to indicate the presence of contaminants (e.g., pebbles, branches, cracks) which "ruin the harmony".

The tag applies to all ways.

Rationale

Many cities feature speed skating clubs which organise tours along cycling paths. For better or worse, skaters are rather picky on the smoothness of the asphalt. Skates feature rather small wheels (e.g., 75-125mm) compared to other sports, like cycling. Furthermore, these wheels are rather hard to reduce friction. Hence, asphalt quality directly impacts the comfort of a skater. High-quality asphalt may feature no vibrations at speeds as high as 25 km/h. Conversely, low-quality asphalt may force a speed skater to slow down to 5 km/h due to excessive vibrations and discomfort during skating.

While OpenStreetMaps already features the smoothness and surface tags to capture some information about the smoothness of the road, these tags are not specifically designed for the needs of speed skaters.

The tag skating_comfort is proposed to bridge this gap. It allows skaters to discover comfortable skating routers and route around uncomfortable ones.

Tagging

Proposed tag keys and values

Key	Value	Meaning
skating_comfort	5	Best asphalt a speed skater can hope for. No noticeable vibrations at 25 km/h.
	5-	As above, however, the surface is contaminated with pebbles, branches, cracks, etc., which "ruin the harmony".
	4	Good asphalt. Vibrations are noticeable at 25 km/h, but not disturbing.
	4-	As above, however, the surface is contaminated.
	3	Okay asphalt.
	2	Bad asphalt. Significant vibrations. Forces speed skater to slow down.
	1	Very bad asphalt. Almost gravel. Surface can be skated on for short distances, but at very low speed. Try to avoid.

The value of the tag is currently somewhat subjective. Once more experience is gathered, objective criteria will be established. For example, for a 5 rating, the RMS of vibrations measured on the skates at 25 km/h should not exceed 1 m/s².

Examples

This cycling path is skating_comfort=5.

This cycling path is skating_comfort=5-.

Rendering

• skating_comfort=5: green path
• skating_comfort=4: green-yellow path
• skating_comfort=3: yellow path
• skating_comfort=2: orange path
• skating_comfort=1: red path
• A minus is indicated by black dashes on the path.

Comments

In the current stage, the aim of this tag is to establish usefulness. Are speed skaters going to look at maps with skating comfort? Are speed skaters going to contribute skating comfort to OSM? Once usefulness is established, the tag will be formally proposed.

Please comment on the discussion page.