[Tagging] The direction=* tag

Sun Mar 19 23:08:30 UTC 2017

On Sun, Mar 19, 2017 at 8:30 PM, Tod Fitch <tod at fitchdesign.com> wrote:

> Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to make the Kendzi3D JOSM plug-in work
> for me. I’ll continue to poke at it from time to time as it looks
> intriguing.
>

I have told Kendzi now it is not working (with version 11425 it does) , but
as you can see in imgur [1] I have done some capture I can assure it works
with more than 9000 traffic signs kinds from 32 countries.

> I did not feel confident in tagging lanes, especially turn lanes, until I
> found the JOSM plug-in that allowed me to visualize and check the tagging
> before committing the changes. This looks like one that would allow me to
> start looking into 3D tagging at some point in the future.
>
> In the meantime, I notice that the direction on the sign in the image is
> not set with a “direction=*” tag but rather with a
> “traffic_sign:direction=*” tag.
>

When I had discover Roadsign plug-in I wanted a complete scheme for my
favourite subject. At first approach in 2013 [2] I know traffic signs need
somewhat to "localize exactly" and the option in Roadsign plug-in was a key
direction= ) .In parallel I have continued with a Style for JOSM. Also I
have found a way to show in "3D" in a plug-in of JOSM called Kendzi3D and
develope the possibility to show this traffic signs with the orientation
with direction= key.

But later, as Roadsign updated were so difficult and I have not control of
it, when I have finished all three legs, I have checked the wiki and
discovered Finnish approach [3] and Deutsch aproach [4] and decided to
start a preset for JOSM, and in the preset and with comments for some user
JOSM did not control direction tag I have changed all the scheme of the
preset to traffic_sign:forward/backward [5]. I have started with my
country: Spain. Last big changes version was in 2016. And one day I saw
someone localized to French some strings. I had checked Taginfo and
Overpass and watch some Spanish traffic signs were around the world (I saw
Spanish traffic signs...in Texas USA ) .So I have started to investigate
other countries. I have took information of other countries as Finland or
Belgium and start with Belgium because they have less traffic signs than
other european countries. But I was so late.

Preset was so huge and also I a bad programmer than it started to make many
problems to JOSM, and in a issue they say me "split the preset" [6] . Now
you have 32 preset from 9000 different traffic signs with forward and
backward.

It seems to me that this area could use some thought and, once
> “bikeshedded” enough, simplified and better documented.
>

I think it is a good opportunity to give traffic signs the importance they
have. The scheme of :forward/backward, the two-letter country code allows
to add any traffic sign of any country.

>
> I recall seeing places where a one way street has a stop sign where it
> connects with another street and a single pole has a stop sign on one side
> and a wrong way/do not enter sign on the other. That use case shouldn’t
> affect a router which should be obeying the one way tagging, but for
> micro-mapping there wouldn't be a straight forward way to tag it if we use
> “traffic_sign:direction = forward | backward” or “direction = forward |
> backward” as we can’t tell which sign the direction tag is for.
>

Thanks to Spanish preset I saw the necessity of make also a destination
tagging scheme, because multiple values does not work well with traffic
signs, also recognition systems from people like Mapillary or OSC use to
identify any traffic sign individually. Proposal is done [7], waiting for
people to watch it and make it yours and better, modify it , ammend it, cut
it, crop it,erase it... Precisely I am not the best programmer in the World
(I'm only a kindergarden teacher) . Make useful all this stuff. Make your
own stuff about that. It is only an idea.

>
> Maybe the “stop:direction = forward | backward” and “give_way:direction =
> forward | backward” would allow micro-mapping with multiple signs on one
> pole. They also follow the example set by the documented
> “traffic_signals:direction = forward | backward” tagging:
>
> “highway = stop”
> “stop:direction = forward”
>
> Follows the meme set by:
>
> “highway = traffic_signals"
> “traffic_signals:direction = forward”
>

I think use subkeys (traffic_sign:forward/backward is better than using
other key as traffic_sign:direction=forward
First option give you the country and the code in one pair of key=value
like this:

traffic_sign=maxspeed
maxspeed:forward=50
traffic_sign:forward=ES:R301
side=right

Also opens the opportunity to use traffic_sign with no subkeys to mark the
kind of traffic sign it is (warning,
complementary,regulatory,compulsory...) as a future scheme to unified
traffic sign international system like Mapillary's [8]

Next moths, next years you will hear about Mapillary, about OSC, about
recognition traffic signs system, about open data agreements with some
goverments (if Spanish government does, other regional governments can do
the same...and other countries goverments also).There are people get ready
to have the information and to give it to us OSM mappers (with plug-ins, iD
custom editors, iD custom layers.

Now traffic signs presets, styles, taginfo (there was a mistake with it
adding 3 more countries and 1000+ traffic signs codes and today is not
working but It will be online soon.) , Kendzi3D (I know with later version
is not working...all Kendzi3D plug-in with JOSM, there is an issue opened
in JOSM's trac and Kendzi's Github), some ways in OSM Lane visualizer [9]
... for 32 countries with 9000+ kinds of traffic signs...but in the future
it can be +26000 from 67 countries (thanks Wikimedia projects), covering
more populated countries in the world.

Are we ready for traffic signs?
I hope so
Salut i senyals de trànsit (Health and traffic signs)
yopaseopor

[1] http://imgur.com/a/SgE90  <http://imgur.com/a/SgE90>
[2] https://josm.openstreetmap.de/ticket/8772
[3] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Finland:Traffic_signs
[4] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Key:traffic_sign&
direction=next&oldid=936571
[5] *https://github.com/yopaseopor/traffic_signs_preset_JOSM/commit/8ce2a41e512cfdae6445120761e17b4691d5b993
<https://github.com/yopaseopor/traffic_signs_preset_JOSM/commit/8ce2a41e512cfdae6445120761e17b4691d5b993>*
[6] https://github.com/yopaseopor/traffic_signs_preset_JOSM/issues/11
[7]
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Extended_traffic_signs_tagging
[8] https://www.mapillary.com/developer/api-documentation/#traffic-signs
[9]
http://osm.mueschelsoft.de/cgi-bin/render.pl?wayid=312653237&start=2&country=de&adjacent&lanewidth&usenodes&extendway
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