I have got some comments on the article on 41Latitude about OSM.[http://www.41latitude.com/post/1310985699/openstreetmap-critique] My comments concentrate on the criticisms as they relate to the map database in Britain.
> USER INTERFACE Not a database issue. > APPEARANCE Not a database issue although the default rendering seems to be easier on British eyes. > COUNTRY LABELS > Country & City Labels Look Too Similar Not a database issue. > Country & City Labels Overlap Not a database issue. > Many State/Province Names Should be Simplified Some parishes have been named in the form Welton CP. There may be other cases. > BORDERS/BOUNDARIES > Country & State/Province Borders Are Too Similar In Appearance Not a database issue. > LabelsBut No Borders I am unaware of this being a problem in the UK. > HIGHWAYS/STREETS/ROADS > A Rainbow of Roads Not a database issue; possibly British users are more used to the default rendering scheme. > Some Roads Are Too Wide & Obscure Other Roads While overuse of highway=primary/highway=secondary is certainly not a peculiarly American vice I cannot think of anywhere in Britain where anything above highway=unclassified is so used. > Uneven Road Coverage > Some Counties Are Shown to Have More Roads Than Other Counties Not a serious problem in the UK except where roads are genuinely unmapped (because of the TIGER import US roads are more often badly mapped than unmapped). > Some of OSMs Roads Look Like State Borders Roads in the UK do not (apart from a few at the Irish border) jump in classification on borders therefore we do not get this effect. > Comparison with Google Maps Not a database issue. > HIGHWAY/ROAD LABELS > Hyphens Not a problem in the UK. No prefix letter used in the UK can be misread as a number. > Inconsistent State Prefixes Not a problem in the UK. > Same RoadDifferent Colored Markers This is not wholly a database issue though you get something similar when A roads change from green to red. > No Prefix Not a problem in the UK. > Semi-Colons This can happen in the UK as it is a problem with editors. > Colons > Parentheses > Semicolons & Parentheses None of these are problems in the UK. > Acronym Markers Funny text in the ref field is rare in the UK though I once found an underbridge with a numeric ref tag. > Some Interstates Show ExitsOthers Dont Junction numbering is worth watching. > CITY LABELS > Uneven City Label Densities Like road densities this (at a more detailed level than place=city) can be a sign of variations in the level of mapping. > Labels That Dont Appear Above Their Cities This has occasionally happened; it risks the next problem. > Multiple Labels for the Same City This has occasionally happened, for instance Ilford. Names have also sometimes been deleted entirely. > Misc. City Label Peculiarities Not a problem in the UK. > Hide-and-Seek Cities This would seem to be a rendering issue that is triggered by having too flat a structure of places (see below). > Major Cities Dont Stand Out Enough What is a problem in the UK is that sometimes ceremonial status (St Davids but not Reading) has been used to the detriment of the quality of the map. As an aside: is it practical to tag towns with populations as some US mapers have suggested? > Are Rogue OSM Users Promoting Their Hometowns? Always something to watch. Why exactly is the town of Elgin tagged as place=city? -- Andrew _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
