[OSM-newbies] postcodes, housenames, speed limits

[Andy Robinson (blackadder)]

stead wrote:
>Sent: 23 April 2008 11:43 PM
>To: newbies at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: [OSM-newbies] postcodes, housenames, speed limits
>
>Hi, After posting some diary entries and realising i should of posted here
>I thought i'd say hi:)
>
>I've edited one of the streets in my area (about the only street may i
>add!)
>
>i've got a couple of questions
>
>1.Should we save speed limits for roads?

Yes, not that much statutory speed limit or practical speed limit data has
been added to date but expect to see more done as those with a navigation
interest ramp up work in the future. If you know the speed limit then do add
it. Details for tagging on the Map Feature page of the wiki.

>2.House names, this is a big thing for me, I work as a courier and house
>names are a nightmare, google maps are wildly inaccurate and I can only
>assume someone with a house name on a dart throws it and when it arrive in
>the general area google then decides to publish that house name on the web!
>I currently have around 185 housenames & hard to find businesses stored as
>poi's in my tom tom (a friend of mine has around 150 currently and we are
>both adding everyday when we find new houses), is there anyway to convert
>them to this? or is there anyway to add house names, i've read its not
>possible so far, but i'm hoping there will be an update to this, even if
>not everyone uses it, it'll be a major benefit to all those who have to
>deal with people naming their houses instead of using numbers!

House numbering and property names is something that's being debated at the
moment. There are different views on how best to add them to the database so
that they can be used for routing. My own preference is to place a node at
the physical address (not as part of the highway). I've been doing numbers
in my area but only at the end of each run of houses (eg at junctions).
House names is a good point and would be easy enough to add specifically.
They are no different than for farms for instance. So if you have names you
want to add and you have the lat/lon then simply put them in the database in
a logical format. For instance, perhaps property_name=baa

>3.Speed limits, Should i add an extra tag for speed limits on roads?

See comments to 1) above

>4.number of lanes, now, i've noticed there doesn't really seem to be many
>roads stating the number of lanes, but i'll happily add them in on
>motorways/dual carrigeways/urban clearways on roads i know.

Yes, I add them sporadically as I have time. The number of lanes should be
the number of lanes that make up the way. So for a divided road where there
are too ways like a motorway then it would be lanes=4 for a normal three
lane motorway (because of the hard shoulder). Most dual carriageways would
be 2. For single carriageway roads the lanes will normally be 2 with 1 for
those with passing places (add a passing_places=true/yes as well) and a few
that are 3 lane (central passing lane).

>5.Postcodes, What about postcodes? from what I can tell we're not allowed
>to save postcodes? If i add postcodes to roads i know as an additional tag,
>will that be removed? as a courier I'm actually more used to finding places
>via postcode now and tend to use the street name when the postcode fails
>me! (sat nav's in all)

Postcodes you personally gather are best submitted to freethepostcode.org

>6.Speed bumps, now this may sound silly, but is it worth mentioning in a
>tag that a road includes speed bumps? I realise this may not seem
>beneficial now, but if these maps are ever used for sat nav's it can be
>used for lorries and other high usage drivers to attempt to avoid speed
>bumps and hopefully reduce stress on the vehicles, the potential for sat
>nav use is also comes in with my postcodes & speed limit's/house numbers,
>names and business locations questions as well :P

I used traffic_calming=true or the type, eg traffic_calming=cushions on ways
that have them

>
>
>Finally i've installed OSMTracker onto my smartphone, now, do i just run
>it? and then it just plots little green dots on the map when i go to edit
>it? I was going to turn it on tomorrow to record all the streets i shall be
>delivering to tomorrow and try adding in a bunch of new roads (namely new
>housing estates that for some reason the big map companies like to ignore)

I'm sure others can provide guidance on using OSMTracker.

>
>I'm glad i've found this! I was actually trying to figure out how I could
>create some sort of database of locations, with the zainy idea of teaching
>myself how to program for windows mobile so I could attempt to write a
>useful sat nav that anyone could modify to stop having to use outdated maps
>all the time! (which would never of happened!)
>


Cheers

Andy