Oops, forgot to copy the list on my reply!!
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Richfield <davidrichfi...@gmail.com> Date: Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 12:13 PM Subject: Re: [OSM-Talk-ZA] Introduction To: Philip Kloppers <pklopp...@amafricait.co.za> On Fri, Apr 23, 2010 at 9:41 AM, Philip Kloppers <pklopp...@amafricait.co.za> wrote: > Hi all, I just wanted to introduce myself to everyone on the ZA list. Welcome! > [Friends mail tracks] Nice idea! > One of the areas I have difficulty with is obtaining the street names. > Many of the streets are not marked, or the signs are badly deteriorated > (I have resorted to asking residents what the street name is!). There > are also many back roads (both dirt and tar) which I assume would be > district roads (D???), but again no markings. Is there any reliable > source (perhaps government archives or something) that I am allowed to use? Surely the town planner would be able to confirm street names. It is a vexing problem. My opinion (and I invite comment here!) is that two independent published maps giving the same name should be acceptable: the fact that a street has a certain name isn't anyone's copyright, and if you haven't just blindly copied names off one specific map, but correlated the info with two sources, that's not copyright infringement. The reasoning for me is, imagine they wanted to claim a foul. If one map gives the name as "lye street" while it's actually called "foot street" to catch copyright infringement, you see on the other map that there's a discrepancy. > The other difficulty is with road classifications. At present, I am > tagging all roads in urban areas as highway:tertiary except for roads in > residential areas, which are highway:residential. I am tagging dirt > roads that are main roads (Dxxx) as highway:secondary and > surface:unpaved, while farm roads are highway:track with > tracktype:gradex. National routes (N2) as either highway:motorway or > highway:trunk depending on whether there is a median present. Other main > routes (R102, R620 etc) as highway:primary, and other named main roads > (not Rxxx routes) linking towns as highway:secondary. Does this make sense? I recently found out that "highway:unclassified" is actually a valid tag (thanks, Nic!) for a road that doesn't have a route number, but isn't a residential street. > Also, what is the convention regarding ref:* and name:* tags? What I > have done is use the ref tag for the Nx, Rxxx or Dxxx name, and the name > tag for the descriptive name. For example, the R620 is called Marine > Drive along most of the south coast, so then that is ref:R620 and > name:Marine Drive, but for a section around Margate it splits into 2 > roads, where one is name:Marine Drive running through town, and ref:R620 > goes around. Your way of tagging seems fine to me, but I'm also still a bit new here. > I'm pleased to be able to help, but want to make sure I am doing this > correctly! That's the spirit! The nice thing about this kind of project, though, is that if you make a mistake, it can be fixed. -- David Richfield e^(pi)+1=0 -- David Richfield e^(πi)+1=0 _______________________________________________ Talk-ZA mailing list Talk-ZA@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-za
