OpenStreetMap
Roads that have been removed... but are still on the old satellite images
Posted by evilspoons on 3 June 2010 in English.I'm wondering what to do with a road that has been removed (demolished and replaced with grass) but is still on the satellite images that show up in OSM. I'm worried people are going to replace it and I'll have to "police" the area until the sat. images go away.
I just deleted the motorway_link (I believe) from the northeast of the intersection detailed in the Location for this post, since it is now gone and the old left turning/straight through lane has been replaced with a dumb no-right-turn-on-red triple-lane setup.
Any tips? Was I supposed to leave the old road and mark it with some sort of 'gone' tag that I missed while reading up on how to do this editing?
Incidentally, I signed up for OSM 3 years ago and thought it was a great idea but didn't get into it because my GPS setup was clunky (laptop + USB receiver) and the editing software was terrible. Now that JOSM and Potlatch have evolved considerably and my cell phone can record GPX files, I'm starting to get interested again - at the moment, mostly just repairing screwed up maps in areas I'm familiar with, but I can imagine going on some mapping outings just for fun.
Discussion
Comment from Maxious on 4 June 2010 at 00:27
See this thread for a discussion of this issue: http://www.mail-archive.com/talk-au@openstreetmap.org/msg02234.html / osm.wiki/Australian_Tagging_Guidelines#What_happens_if_another_map_says_a_road_exists_but_isn.27t_really_there.3F
Comment from liftarn on 4 June 2010 at 10:35
osm.wiki/Key:disused might be an idea.
Comment from evilspoons on 4 June 2010 at 14:24
Unfortunately, in both cases it would seem the road still renders on the map but marks it as "abandoned". The road is totally gone and shouldn't appear on the main map in any way - I'm trying to figure out how to get this addressed.
Comment from evilspoons on 4 June 2010 at 14:25
(Thanks for the ideas so far, by the way!)
Comment from LivingWithDragons on 4 June 2010 at 15:49
If there was fear of it being added again then I might just leave it only with a tag like "note=this road has been removed, surveyed June 2010". But usually if everywhere around is mapped then I'm not sure any over-keen tracer would be editing/looking in the area. They usually want to expand coverage where the map seems to be lacking part of a town or more.
You could improve the map to make it clear there is active OSM activity there. Add buildings/house numbers of surrounding roads, make sure the area has all the shops etc., or map the area as landuse=grass (you could actually attach a note tag to the grass).
Comment from Kevin Steinhardt on 4 June 2010 at 17:52
Leave the ways in place, but removed all tags; then apply "note=Some kind of note re: the fact that the way no longer exists".
Comment from c2r on 5 June 2010 at 18:44
yeah, where a route is gone completely, rather than just being left in an abandoned state, such as if a junction layout changes (roundabout to traffic lights or vice versa are common) I have done as Kevin suggests - just adding a note to the way, and removing tags apart from a note, which will stop it getting re-added from an aerial photo. Might also be a good idea to include survey date, or date you know that the feature was changed if it is near you, to have some sort of historical data attached.