I have the following suggestion for new community controlled postal
codes in the Phils, based on the UK system, but improved and modified to
make more sense in the Phils and to be easier to read and less disputed...
Format: AAAA99A 9AA
Example: ABCD12E 3FG
AB = Province or Metropolitan Area
CD = Town
12 = district or section of town - divided using the method mentioned below
E = (optional) sub district, to be used when we run out of post codes in
an area
3 = sector within district
FG = unit within sector - generally a limited section of a street with 1
to 100 or so houses
Here's a further description of the above:
AB = Province or Metropolitan Area
----------------------------------
A two letter acronym for each province. Must be carefully compiled to be
as logical as possible. I have focussed on unique characters in the
name, the first letter always being the same as the first letter of the
name.
Examples:
AB = Abra
AN = Agusan del Norte
AS = Agusan del Sur
AK = Aklan
AL = Albay
AQ = Antique
AY = Apayao
AU = Aurora
BS = Basilan
BA = Bataan
BT = Batanes
BN = Batangas
BG = Benguet
BI = Biliran
BH = Bohol
BK = Bukidnon
BC = Bulacan
...
MM = Metro Manila
PP = Pampanga
CD = Town
---------
Two char acronym for town within province:
Examples:
(Metro Manila)
CO = Caloocan
LP = Las Piñas
MK = Makati
MB = Malabon
MY = Mandaluyong
MN = Manila
MR = Marikina
ML = Muntinlupa
NV = Navotas
PQ = Parañaque
PY = Pasay
PS = Pasig
PT = Pateros
QC = Quezon City
SJ = San Juan
TG = Taguig
VZ = Valenzuela
(Pmapanga)
AC = Angeles City[1]
SF = City of San Fernando[2]
AP = Apalit
AY = Arayat
BC = Bacolor
CD = Candaba
FB = Floridablanca
GG = Guagua
LB = Lubao
MB = Mabalacat
MC = Macabebe
MG = Magalang
MS = Masantol
MX = Mexico
MN = Minalin
PR = Porac
SL = San Luis
SS = San Simon
SA = Santa Ana
SR = Santa Rita
ST = Santo Tomas
SS = Sasmuan
12 = district or section of town
--------------------------------
I propose instead of assigning seemingly random numbers, like is the
case here in the UK, we could have a bit mor structured approach. We'll
start at the town center, which in the province towns probably could be
the town hall or some other obvious center. In the metropolitan areas it
matters less and we could probably go for a geographical center.
First digit - distance from town center
0 = postal codes surrounding town center.
1 = nearest circle around town center
...
9 = 9th circle
we could also go on to letters if needed
Second digit - direction
(hope all can see my compass)
0
9 N 1
8 ___|___ 2
7 | 3
6 S 4
5
We could also go for the more well known clock style, using A for 11 and
B for 12 - but B might be confused with 8...
SAMPLE POSTAL CODES:
So this would give us, for example:
MMQC05 3AQ - Metro Manila / Quezon City, Just south of the selected center
MMMK25 9XD - Metro Manila / Makati, southern part, not too far from the
center
PPMG92 0AB - Pampanga / Magalang, far away barrio (distance 9), East and
possibly slightly north of the town center
PPMX00 0AA - Pampanga / Mexico, town center (or just north of it if you
want to be exact)
Obviously, within a post code, house number are unique and post codes
should generally not span more than one street.
Criticism is openly accepted!
In fact, I'll give some already (with answers), but please give more:
- The post codes are long - we might need to skip a digit for example
the sector (the 7th digit), as we've already sliced it up so well
anyway, plus we always have the optional sub district if needed.
- instead of MMQC and PPMG, we could use a single or double character
town/city name like they do in the UK, only assigning this code to a
handful big cities (smaller towns being under the big city's postcode
system), saving us 2 characters (Yes, but that has caused many disputes,
which is going to make it difficult to get people to adapt the system -
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_postcodes . Also, the place names in
the Philippines are a lot more duplicated than they are in the UK, hence
the use of Province/Metropolitan Area prefix)
- what if there are border changes or disputes? (they will have to live
with two postcodes for a while, until things settle down)
- what about adding a checksum digit so a postcode can be verified
electronically (could do, but it will add yet another digit)
- what about non-geographic postal codes, like a permanent post code for
a big company or government organization? (we could consider not
offering them, because it gets messy, or we could use letters instead of
numbers in the district (distance+direction) code)
- This is ridiculous! who will need this? (Mail order companies,
Couriers, Direct Marketing companies, Government, Post office, any
company or person delivering anything to a person they don't already
know, YOU (enter the postal code on your GPS and go straight to the door!)
- who will assign the numbers? (we, the community, in an open and
democratic way)
RFC!
Best regards,
Ronny Ager-Wick
Develo Ltd
_______________________________________________
talk-ph mailing list
talk-ph@openstreetmap.org
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ph
