[OSM-newbies] Speed Limits

[Stefan Waidele]

Thomas Meller schrieb:
> IMHO setting a speedlimit does not do a good job for every case. Does
> it count for bicycle riders? Does it count for motorbike riders? Does
> it count for pedestrians?

That goes off into the wrong direction. These questions are to be
considered in regard to the local laws. (e.g., IIRC, IANAL, in germany,
speed limits are for motorized vehicles, thus they are not for bicycles).

> OSM, as I understood, aims at being a universally usable source for
> orientation and routing for every type of traffic.
> 
> Reasonable speedlimits are very individual. They depend on the
> driver's/rider's skills, the vehicle used, the way's inclination,
> load, daily mood and goal aimed at.

True for "reasonable speed limits".
Not true for the speed limits on the signs next to the road. These are
facts, even if your vehicle/load/abilities do not allow you to go that fast.

Also "no speed limit" would not mean "unlimited", but more to be the
"default speed limit" for the kind of road.

So, IMO it is a reasonable goal to map the "officially allowed speed"
for roads. That was the starting point of this discussion: A road with
two different speed-limits, depending on the direction you are heading.

And I also agree that it might not be easy to tag this, since there can
be different limits for different vehicles. But that should not keep
anybody from trying to map it, should it?

> I have some ideas for judging the shape of a curve, but am not
> capable to make a code example. Maybe someone already has some
> programming experience and likes a trial? The task is not really
> profane and depends highly on the quality of the OSM-data, but I
> think it should be possible to write an interface for judging a way's
> shape independent of the vehicle type.

That is taking the "estimating trip time" to a much higher level - which
is not bad, but not the original poster's problem. (IIRC, the
time-estimate came up as an example-usage. Which is a valid case, even
if it could be done even better using your thoughts above).

To sum it up: I think mapping official speed limits is a good thing,
since it makes the data collected in OSM more complete.

Yours,

Stefan
http://openstreetmap.org/user/stwaidele

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