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I applied to KCC for permission to use data from their Highways
Gazetteer in OSM. They have approved on the condition that the data is
attributed to them. My request and their official reply are below. What
this gives us is an authorititave source for road numbering and
classification in Kent (excluding Medway), although it does require a
little bit of thinking as there are no coordinates, only road and place
names. So for example we take Whitehill Road and Highcross Road between
Longfield and Bean [1] the Gazetteer makes clear that these roads are
still officially the B255, even though the signs have not revealed this
for years. For the attribution they require I intend to use
source:ref=kent.gov.uk.<br>
<br>
Which brings me to a dilemma: If a road is ostensibly one type but
officially another, how should this be tagged? Both are "verifiable."
Traditionally the official classification takes precedence - otherwise
the single-track A-roads in the Scottish highlands and islands might
better be tagged as as "track" in some cases... The Wiki [2]
specifically refers to the Administrative classifications.<br>
<br>
Another use of this Gazetteer is to arbitrate between road classes,
particularly between tertiary (i.e. C-roads) and unclassified, where
there is mostly no visible difference "on the ground". That throws up
the odd anomaly as well: New Ash Green [3] got its very own bypass in
the seventies, which is single carriageway but very wide. The much
smaller original "main road" which goes through the village still
retains the "C" classification, and the relatively enormous bypass is
still "unclassified".<br>
<br>
It occurred to the cynic in me that the lengths of roads of various
classes might be fed into some spreadsheet in Whitehall to calculate
some kind of grant to the local councils, giving them an interest in
keeping the administrative classifications as "high" as possible,
despite downgrading them on the ground. But that's unlikely to be true
of course.<br>
<br>
Colin Smale<br>
<br>
[1] <a
href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.40868&lon=0.2965&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF">http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.40868&lon=0.2965&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF</a><br>
[2] <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features#Highway">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features#Highway</a><br>
[3] <a
href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.3665&lon=0.30171&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF">http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.3665&lon=0.30171&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF</a><br>
=========================<br>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">Dear Sirs,</font></span>
</p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">I am one of an army
of volunteers who collectively are producing and maintaining
"openstreetmap.org" ( </font></span><a
href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/"><span lang="en-gb"><u><font
size="2" color="#0000ff" face="Arial">http://www.openstreetmap.org/</font></u></span></a><span
lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial"> ), a crowd-sourced map of
the world under the CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons by</font></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">Share-Alike) licence
( </font></span><a
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/"><span
lang="en-gb"><u><font size="2" color="#0000ff" face="Arial">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/</font></u></span></a><span
lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial"> ), with which you may be
familiar.</font></span>
</p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">Having found the KCC
Highways Gazetteer, I would like to request your permission to use and
republish certain information contained in this document by
incorporating it in OpenStreetMap.</font></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">One of the problems
we frequently face is that the official category of a road (or segment
thereof) is not always immediately obvious "on the ground". I would
like to use this document to classify (minor) roads correctly as (for
example distinguishing between "unclassified" and "tertiary"), add the
official road number, and possibly its status as a private (unadopted)
street. The Highways Gazetteer contains no location information (other
than place names) and therefore is probably unencumbered by Ordnance
Survey restrictions, which would render the data unusable in the
CC-BY-SA licence model. The alignment of the road will still be
surveyed "on the ground", but thereafter the Gazetteer will be used to
classify the road correctly as mentioned.</font></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">Yours sincerely,</font></span>
<br>
<span lang="en-gb"><font size="2" face="Arial">Colin Smale</font></span>
</p>
=========================<br>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font face="Arial">Dear Mr Smale,</font></span>
<br>
<span lang="en-gb"><font face="Arial">Further to your request for
information relating to re-use of information from the Kent Highways
Gazetteer, because the information you have requested falls under the
scope of the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) and is information held
within the Environment, Highways & Waste Directorate (the
directorate), your request has been forwarded to me so that I can
co-ordinate the response on behalf of the directorate. This is to
comply with procedures that the County Council has for dealing with all
FoIA requests.</font></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font face="Arial">You ask the Council:</font></span>
</p>
<ul>
<li><span lang="en-gb"><font color="#0000ff" face="Arial">Having
found
the KCC Highways Gazetteer, I would like to request your permission to
use and republish certain information contained in this document by
incorporating it in OpenStreetMap</font></span></li>
</ul>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font face="Arial">Although the response below
has been sent from me, I have liaised with Kent Highway Services who
have provided the following in answer to your request:</font></span></p>
<p><span lang="en-gb"><font face="Arial">Kent County Council are
willing to allow the information in the Highway Gazetteer to be used
for the purpose of Open Street Map on the proviso that we receive
confirmation that the data source is kent.gov.uk.</font></span></p>
=========================<br>
<br>
On 03/01/2010 12:36, Colin Smale wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4B40814C.7000401@xs4all.nl" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">While searching the internet for arbitration in a case where "local
wisdom" appeared to conflict with OSM data I came across the Kent County
Council Highways Gazetteer. It contains a "complete" list of roads in
Kent, including their reference, road number, name, official
classification, parish and length.
It's a PDF file, linked from here:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.kent.gov.uk/roads_and_transport/transport_policies/road_status/adopted_and_private_streets.aspx">http://www.kent.gov.uk/roads_and_transport/transport_policies/road_status/adopted_and_private_streets.aspx</a>
I would like to use this document to classify minor roads correctly as
"unclassified" or "tertiary", add the official road number, at least to
the "tertiary" roads, i.e. C-roads, and possibly "access=permissive"
where the road is a privately maintained road (assuming unhindered
access etc. as described on the Wiki).
There is no sign of any OS-encumbrances; there is no real location
information in the file. The KCC (together with district councils I
assume) can be considered a fairly authoritative source for this
information.
Would it be OK to derive tagging in this way? Should we get explicit
permission from KCC first? Anyone got any experience with this, or
example emails for this kind of request?
Colin
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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