[Tagging] Reliable OSM routing (was: How to tag an imaginary oneway barrier)

[Tod Fitch]

Some very good points here. . .


On Feb 9, 2014, at 10:47 AM, André Pirard wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I left this unsent for some time, so it may duplicate what has already been said.
> But it's uttermost important.
> <snip>
> 
> There doesn't seem to be routing quality assurance tools, not even Osmose detecting detectable mistakes, and I've corrected quite a number of bad tagging mistakes that I found with Osmand.

Osmand is definitely a quality assurance tool for me. I have taken to using its routing facility at every opportunity. When it comes up with a route that makes no sense to me I go back to look at the OSM tagging to look for clues as to why the route was selected. Usually it is bad or missing tagging. In the western U.S. there is still a lot of old Tiger imported data that has not been corrected or added to. Sometimes it is incorrect topology, but often it is simply the lack of speed information as well as the location of stop signs and traffic signals that cause the routing issues.

Since I'm not willing to setup for generating my own OBF files it takes a couple of weeks for me to see if the fixes I add make any difference.

> Many people appear confused with the restriction rules.
> There should be a wiki page listing exactly what tags mappers and routers must use.

That would be very helpful.

> There should be a tool like this implementing exactly those rules and using an up to date map, at least daily or almost life (for example on demand according to the requests) so that mappers can check their doings on short distances.

Yet another useful web site that I was not aware of until just now. Thanks for the link! And, yes, having a site or tool that can show the routing results on very current OSM data would help a lot.

> AFAICS, OSM routing is not reliable. It does make useful routes on the large scale but it makes many errors when coming down to the details and one may be booked for trusting it too much.
> 

In the business sector I was in until recently, the phrase "eating your own dog food" seems to apply. That is, use your own products in your production environment to be really sure they are ready for market. I strongly suggest that anyone doing tagging on highways use the OSM based routing tools and when the results don't match expectations find and fix the tagging problem.

> Cheers,
> 
> André.

-Tod

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