[talk-au] Railway Station Naming Dispute

Richard Weait richard at weait.com
Thu Feb 3 14:43:59 GMT 2011


On Thu, Feb 3, 2011 at 8:29 AM, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 12:09 AM, Alex Lum <sierra.oscar at gmail.com> wrote:
>> In any case, we should be mapping what's "on-the-ground" anyway, i.e. the station signage (unless this signage is contradictory in which case it may be required to use official records).
>
> I thought the policy – wherever it's written – was using whatever the
> locals think it is. I'm wary of placing too much trust in signage,
> because with bike paths in particular, that approach gets you nowhere
> fast. But if there's an official operator (which there is), whatever
> their website says sounds like a good start.
>
> We definitely shouldn't have a situation where one person swears blind
> that "the real name" of something is xxx even though common sense
> dictates that it's yyy.

There is merit in both "on the ground" and "local usage" but the
details matter.  I wonder if local mappers could come to an agreement
by using both name and old_name?  There may not be a general answer
beyond, "what's the best you can collectively agree to?"

As an example, I have a local bit of motorway that appears to be "just
more of highway 8."  It is, in fact, a high speed bypass of highway 8
which still exists as a local road.  Wikipedia suggests that the
bypass is officially highway 7187, an un-sign-posted, internal
reference number for the highway department.  It would be correct, in
some ways to use ref=7187, as this is the internal reference number.
It would be correct in other ways to use ref=8 based on local, common
usage.  In the end, the local mappers agreed to leave this section of
motorway with no ref=, since this section has no posted highway number
"reassurance markers".

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/4001108/history
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=43.40796&lon=-80.39076&zoom=15&layers=M

Best regards,
Richard



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