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Trailforks Basemap and OSM Trail Visibility

  • Updated

Understanding Changes to the Trailforks Basemap and OSM Trail Visibility

Trailforks has recently made changes to how OpenStreetMap (OSM) data appears on our default topo basemap. These updates aim to reduce visual clutter, better integrate OSM trail data, and give you more control over how trails are displayed.

What’s Changing?

1. OSM Trails Are Now More Visible — But Cleaner

Historically, OSM trails have always been included on the Trailforks basemap, but were faint and only visible when zoomed in closely. We did this to avoid overlapping with Trailforks (TF) trails and to keep the map clear. You could always view these trails more prominently by switching to the OSM basemap layer.

Now, we’ve improved our rendering pipeline to better compare Trailforks and OSM trail data. As a result:

  • OSM trails that overlap with a TF trail are now excluded from the default basemap.

  • This allows us to make other OSM trails more prominent in areas not fully mapped on TF, without creating messy overlaps.

 

2. More Accurate Filtering of Hidden Trails

If a TF trail is marked as hidden, any overlapping OSM trail is also excluded from the map. This means that:

  • Hidden or sensitive trails are less likely to appear faintly on the map.

  • Entire hidden regions will also exclude all OSM trails within their boundaries, similar to how we handle heatmap data.

This is an improvement over our old system, where hidden or illegal trails could still be faintly visible via OSM.

 

3. Optional Region-Based OSM Trail Control (Coming Soon)

We’re considering adding a region-level setting to completely opt out of displaying OSM trails — even in public regions. However, we recommend that all trails be added to Trailforks (public or hidden) to maintain full control over visibility.

4. New Visual Style for OSM Trails

We’ve adjusted the default map style to make OSM trails:

  • Lighter in color

  • Dotted lines

  • Visible only at certain zoom levels

This makes them useful without being intrusive.

 

5. More Prominent Display of OSM Dirt Roads & Bike Lanes

Dirt roads and bike lanes from OSM are now displayed more prominently. Just like with trails, they’re checked against TF data to avoid redundancy or clutter.

 

6. Trail Classification by Activity

Trailforks now classifies OSM trails using our own activity-based system:

  • sidewalk

  • footonly

  • multiuse

  • bikeonly

  • cycleway

This helps ensure that OSM trails are relevant to the sport or activity being viewed.

What If an OSM Trail Still Overlaps?

If you see an OSM trail still showing beneath a TF trail, the overlap detection might have missed it. You can:

  • Edit the TF trail and add the OSM Way ID, which helps us exclude that OSM trail from the basemap in future updates.

Additional Tools

  • Bulk Import from OSM: Admins can use the “Bulk Import Trails from OSM” tool to import OSM trails more efficiently and mark them as hidden if needed.

  • Basemap Update Frequency: With this new system, Trailforks will be updating the basemap more frequently to reflect changes in OSM data and TF trail edits.

 

Summary

These changes are designed to strike a better balance between providing comprehensive trail coverage (especially for lesser-mapped regions or other sports like hiking and dirt biking) and reducing map clutter. By filtering overlapping data more intelligently and giving you more control, we aim to make the Trailforks basemap more useful and easier to interpret.

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