OpenStreetMap
Just found OSM the other week and after checking it out found an app for my Android. One problem I found is that the roads did not render in my town unless I was extremely zoomed in. Wondering why I started looking into the maps and found that I could sign up and edit the maps myself. So I did.
I have been updating the road types in Ft. Collins and Loveland Colorado to reflect the true priorities of the cities. I am a little aggravated that OSM uses UK standards but I think I can work with them. Just hope I don't tick anyone off while I update everything. But I think this will make the maps better and more functional for mobile devices.
Discussion
Beachd le TomH 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 20:15
We don't use UK standards really - the names are influenced by UK names because that's where we started out but each country tends to develop it's own mapping from local road types to the different highway types.
Think of the various highway values simply as opaque tokens with a particular hierarchical order rather than trying to interpret the words directly and it will make more sense.
Beachd le giggls 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 20:17
The reason for OSM using UK standards is simply the fact that th project has UK roots. British highway tagging is also somewhat alien over here in Germany :)
Beachd le giggls 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 20:17
The reason for OSM using UK standards is simply the fact that the project has UK roots. British highway tagging is also somewhat alien over here in Germany :)
Beachd le nsx2000 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 21:12
Oh I see. That pretty much what I came to do was use the hierarchy and ignore the road labels. Thanks everyone! I'm going to have a lot of fun feeling useful while I continue to improve the maps in my local areas.
Beachd le Vclaw 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 21:28
Have you seen the table for international equivalence at the bottom of this page: osm.wiki/Key:highway
It specifies what type of roads should have what tags for each country.
Beachd le Richard 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 22:16
giggls - no, really, Tom's right, they're not UK standards. In the UK we tag non-primary A roads as "highway=primary" ;)
Beachd le ColinMarquardt 6 An Giblean 2010 aig 22:38
In addition to what was said: welcome, and beware. "Beware" because you may soon find out that OSM is really addictive :)