[HOT] Thank you from MSF!

Sun Apr 7 17:37:37 UTC 2019

Hello Kevin,

the wiki is always a good resource. There are project pages for many countries
which contain tagging guidelines inluding a translation from official
classification to OSM classification, e.g.:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_India  =>
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/India:Tags/Highway

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_South_Africa =>
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/South_African_Tagging_Guidelines

For many countries covered by HOT projects such pages do not exist which led to
the creation of a few guidelines by HOT already mentioned in this thread:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_Tag_Africa
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines

Any modifications should best be discussed (and finally documented) on these pages.

/Michael
(osm:michael63)
Chairman of the HOT Training Working Group /

Kevin McPherson via HOT, 07.04.19 18:59:
> 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?
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> HOT mailing list
>>> HOT at openstreetmap.org <mailto:HOT at openstreetmap.org>
>>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>>
>
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