[Talk-GB] Tagging of British canals.

[SomeoneElse]

On 06/08/2014 19:17, richard wrote:
> Firstly a disclaimer, I am mostly an armchair mapper.
>
> I am working my way around the canals of Britain, tracing the canal banks and
> tidying up locks etc. (I have probably seen a dozen different ways that locks
> have been tagged.)

(on the more general point)

How are you handling access rights and restrictions, and mapping of the 
surface, width, and other attributes?  Do you have a way of 
communicating with local mappers to ensure that those important details 
get filled in?

> and I have changed these as I have realigned them.

What have you realigned them to?  Bing imagery (and if so, how do you 
know how accurate it is there?) or GPS traces (and if so, how do you 
know whether a trace was from one bank, the other, or a boat on the 
canal itself?

To get the _best_ map surely you'd need to actually visit the canals in 
question so that you can categorically say "this GPS trace is from X 
bank" on at least one of the traces?  More important even than GPS 
traces is just getting a "sense" of what something looks like (e.g. is 
this a footpath that people can cycle on or a cycleway that people can 
walk on?)

Obviously there are some features that can't be mapped completely from a 
visit (the interior of private woodland, for example), but even there, 
checking from the exterior that the feature still exists where less 
up-to-date sources (Bing, OS OpenData) thought it did is still worthwhile.

Cheers,

Andy