[HOT] Thank you from MSF!

Sun Apr 7 17:30:03 UTC 2019

Generally speaking HOT mappers are armchair mappers so what they map is
what they see on a satellite image.  Most instructions these days say tag
highways between settlements as unclassified.  There are some old mappings
that show highway=track for these although over time these are being
retagged.

Look through the African highway wiki and see if you can align what you'd
like with what is there.  Now think it terms of a database.  What is in the
database is not directly viewable.  However renders such as maperitive for
example has rules so that if it says Tertiary in the database it can be
displayed as district.

Generally speaking highway tags above unclassified are left alone so if you
retag to the tag you think aligns then it will probably stay tagged that
way.  I've probably retagged more highways in Africa than anyone retagging
highway=road etc.

Cheerio John

On Sun, 7 Apr 2019 at 12:59, Kevin McPherson <mcpherson_kevin at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Dear all, I am new to this HOT interface on OSM, but joined last week, and
> interested in road classification in OSM. This is my first posting, and
> first time I have engaged with anyone on OSM, so am still getting up to
> speed.
>
> "Road Classification" is an important topic for roads agencies, it helps
> define the funding and prioritisation for development and maintenance of
> the road network in a country.
>
> With regards to OSM, one issue is that the <highway> tag in OSM is never
> quite the same as the official definition of the country. For example, the
> highway tag:
>
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:highway
>
> uses "Motorway", "Trunk", "Primary", "Secondary" etc. while a national
> roads agency might use other terminology such as "Main", "District",
> "Local" etc.
>
> What this means is that the road network classification in OSM is never
> quite the same as that used by the Roads Agency, and there are
> discrepancies between the "official" data of the roads agency, and the OSM
> definition. This causes confusion to anyone who wants accurate mapping.
>
> As part of my work, I am trying to encourage Roads Agencies to review OSM
> mapping, to compare with their official definitions, and to update OSM
> based on their own records. However, the differences in the classification
> terminologies are a barrier to this. Every country potentially has a
> different classification system. We have been discussing internally that an
> extra "layer" on top of OSM might be a way forward, but that is an overhead
> and requires extra cost and administration.
>
> Would be grateful for anyone's views on this.
>
> Regards, Kevin McPherson
>
>
>
>
> On Saturday, April 6, 2019, 3:34:19 PM GMT+1, Ralf Bernhardt <
> raabee at gmx.de> wrote:
>
>
> My point this time is not the classification of a few roads. What I learn
> from this, is that our data is processed and reviewed again. If a mapping
> error is detected by local staff, it will most likely only be reported to
> their own mapping department. It will also only be fixed locally. We as
> mappers or validators will never learn from this process. All errors will
> remain in the OSM Database. That might be understandable in an emergency
> situation like now.  But without direct feedback from map users we will
> never improve. We should also demand that more local knowledge will be
> shared with OSM. A simple thank you is not enough.
>
> Ralf
> On 06.04.19 13:29, John Whelan wrote:
>
> There is another wiki guide
>
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_Tag_Africa
>
> both get updated from time to time.  As a general rule of thumb I tag
> highways between settlements as unclassified not track, I leave it to the
> local mappers to say if it is a higher classification.  Occasionally I'll
> tag as high as tertiary. Normally I leave the tags alone but have been
> known to retag motorways between two small settlements as unclassified.
>
> I think step one is to get something mapped.  Step two is correct it and
> with lots of new mappers with different ideas we'll always see some
> problems.
>
> Cheerio John
>
> Frans Schutz wrote on 2019-04-06 6:27 AM:
>
> Hello Ralf
>
> you pinpoint to a situation which is not always clear.
> First of all. we ty to keep ourselves to the East African Highway tagging
> wiki
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines
>
> Different mappers judge different how to tag a highway. Out of my own
> experience lots of mappers (and validators) struggle with how to tag a
> highway.  Looking to the importance, the routing, and the width of the
> highway, which is hard to measure from a satellite image, we have to
> decide. A big number of new mappers are joining us and have different ideas
> (nor no idea at all) how to tag a highway. I've seen taggings as secondary
> highway as a connection to 2 hamlets and so on. So we try to tag as good as
> possible, but often it is a (calculated)guess which tag is relevant. Take
> also in account that there is a huge time pressure on these disaster
> mapping projects, so sometimes you accept the tagging as they were made.
> When there is no time pressure you can take a look to each highway and
> decide.
> I hope you get an understanding how we have to deal with this subject.
> Best regards
> Frans Schutz
> Validator
>
>
>
> Op 5-4-2019 om 20:10 schreef Ralf Bernhardt:
>
> Interesting when compared to the openstreetmap data.
>
> There are many POIs I would like to see on Openstreetmap too, also
> boundarys and place names.
>
> I also noticed a different tagging scheme: Car, Moto and Foot. I would
> guess that Roads not passable for a car but by foot and moto should be
> highway=path in OSM.
>
> But most of them are still tagged as unclassified or residential. Is
> there a reason for that or will you change them later?
>
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