OpenStreetMap
After my first mapping tour with more than just one street, I encountered some problems while adding the data to OSM.
Just tracing the gpx track in JOSM was pretty easy and worked fine and very intuitive.
The headache started while searching through the wiki to find the most appropriate tags to describe the information gathered. There are a lot of inconsistencies between the language versions (english and german in my case) between sites (Map_Features und HowTo_Map_A) and between the main page and the stuff written in the discussion page.
What worries me most is, that I was not searching for some misterious, golden paved woodway only for green firetrucks turning left, but instead for some simple streets in a small german village.
What I'm missing is a page similiar to the HowTo_Map_A page, which already is a great improvement to the Map_Features page, but with some more detailed description on the mapping and tagging process itself. What to look for in the field? How to distinguish between some features? What's best practise for those everyday rural streets?
Some concrete Problems:
- How to distinguis between tertiary and unclassified roads (in germany)?
- How to correctly tag the physical features of a road? tracktype/surface/smootheness?
- Is tracktype=* allowed for highway=residential, or only for highway=track?
- If a road touches a parking area (I can drive from the road onto the parking area at any point) can the way be the boarder of the parking area and the road at the same time?
- Does the noexit=yes tag belong to the last node of a way, or to the whole way?
I just have to say again, that I found more than one solution to these problems on the wiki pages. They are mostly mutual exclusive.
It's not in the spirit of OSM to tell people HOW to map and tag. Just to give them a way of sharing there data, I know. But a little more guidance would be very much appreciated. At least by me.
Discussion
Kommentar frå davidearl, 4 februar 2009 kl. 10:30
There are as many ways to map things as there are contributors and that's why it is confusing. There are two camps of opinion in OSM: those who would like standardisation and those who want a free for all (which to my mind means that mostly those who define what gets rendered on the maps get to decide), and this has been debated endlessly on the mailing lists. smoothness in particular is a battle that has been raging this week (to which my reaction is not to attempt to use it).
I think the best approach is to look at a well-mapped area nearby, or at least in your part of Germany, and follow their lead. I suspect you'll find a lot of the physical features stuff is not widely used.
On the parking area question, you could create more than one way between the shared nodes, but you wouldn't normally use the highway way itself. Or you could separate the area by a small amount (which is what I do, because it makes it easier to edit than having superimposed ways). There is no right answer.
If you find good answers to your questions, you could edit the wiki pages so they reflect at least one reality.
Kommentar frå 42429, 4 februar 2009 kl. 12:04
- How to distinguish between tertiary and unclassified roads (in Germany)?
-- Each country has its own definition for tertiary roads. In Germany, tertiary roads are called Kreisstraßen. There is a map showing all Kreisstraßen in Thuringia: http://www.thueringen.de/imperia/md/content/tlsb/service/strassennetzkarte/th200_2008.pdf
-- It's the easiest way to follow this official classification. There is a long discussion which other roads may be designated as tertiary roads if they are at least 4 Meters wide, e.g. former federal roads (Bundesstraßen).
- How to correctly tag the physical features of a road? tracktype/surface/smootheness?
-- Currently, surface is the most common tag.
- Is tracktype=* allowed for highway=residential, or only for highway=track?
-- Tracktype for residential roads is simply useless.
- If a road touches a parking area (I can drive from the road onto the parking area at any point) can the way be the boarder of the parking area and the road at the same time?
-- No problem.
- Does the noexit=yes tag belong to the last node of a way, or to the whole way?
-- It's a tag to facilitate routing. A routing service should avoid this way.
> I just have to say again, that I found more than one solution to these problems on the wiki pages. They are mostly mutual exclusive.
-- You are right. Some people are fighting for rules, some people are fighting for exceptions. They will show you a Kreisstraße with 4 or 6 lanes in Nordrhein-Westfalen to prove that a Kreisstraße cannot be tagged as tertiary.
> It's not in the spirit of OSM to tell people HOW to map and tag. Just to give them a way of sharing there data, I know. But a little more guidance would be very much appreciated. At least by me.
-- You are right. Standardizing rules is an exhausting job if everybody defends his personal exceptions.
Gruß aus Niedersachsen
FK270673