[Talk-GB] Footpath reference numbers

[David Groom]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andy Street" <mail at andystreet.me.uk>
To: "Nick Whitelegg" <Nick.Whitelegg at solent.ac.uk>
Cc: <talk-gb at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Monday, November 08, 2010 3:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Footpath reference numbers


>
> On Mon, 2010-11-08 at 14:37 +0000, Nick Whitelegg wrote:
>> I think some discussion of this has come up before (some time ago) but 
>> how many people are tagging footpaths with their council reference 
>> numbers?
>>
>> Reason I ask is that I'm in the process of overhauling Freemap and one 
>> thing I'd like to do is allow people to tag footpaths with (perhaps 
>> subjective) comments which would be out of place in the main OSM 
>> database, such as whether it has a nice view, whether there are any 
>> problems with the path, etc.
>>
>> I do this already to some extent but the only problem is that the 
>> comments are linked to the path's OSM ID. Obviously if the path is split, 
>> or deleted and redrawn, the OSM ID then becomes invalidated so it's 
>> tricky to ensure that comments remain associated with the correct 
>> footpath.
>>
>> However council footpath reference numbers can uniquely identify a 
>> footpath, so obviously if comments were linked to ref numbers the problem 
>> would be much simplified.
>
> AFAIK the path numbers in Hampshire are only unique within parish
> boundaries. Although not impossible, it might be a bit of a PITA to add
> RoW numbers to paths that either cross the boundary multiple times or
> are themselves part of the boundary.
>
>> I know one or two people have been tagging ref numbers but where have 
>> they got the info from? A couple of councils round here (Hants, West 
>> Sussex) publish the path numbers on their online maps but it's unclear 
>> whether copying from them would be infringement of copyright.
>>

>> If anyone has been extensively tagging paths with ref numbers let me know 
>> where as it would be a good "test bed" for the system.

Eatern end of the IOW (see below)

>
>
> Have a look at the Isle of Wight. The signs over there often include the
> path number and I know at least some of them have been entered into OSM.

Footpath / Bridleway data in OSM on the IOW comes largely from 2 sources.

1) Ground survey - most (though not all) path signs have a reference number 
and this has been included in OSM.  In general the newer signs have more 
information, and over the last year the council appear to be undertaking a 
program of renewing signs.

2) tracing from NPE & OS 1:25k, in which case the path reference number is 
not available.

as a general rule the paths in the eastern end of the IOW are more likley to 
have been sourced from ground survey.

David

>
> Cheers,
>
> Andy
>
>
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