[Talk-GB] Getting Highway Agency information into OSM

John Baker rovastar at hotmail.com
Thu Jul 3 20:36:04 UTC 2014







I am a little surprised at the negativity. I would have thought it would be welcomed that the highway agency want to engage with OSM to help get the most up-to-date map available. I thought we prided ourselves of having the most up-to-date map.

We currently have roads under construction (and proposed but I have avoided adding these with my chats with the HA as things can change) in OSM.

I am confused as how you think people get these into OSM in the first place. Often they already use sources (I see it in the source tags often and I have been looking over the last few weeks at many of these proposed and constructed roads to get a feel about what the data is like) like the highway agency for England for the major roads.

What I want to do is streamline and improve this process as mappers in the UK (it might not be you) do use these resources already. And often they guess from the information available if proper detailed aligned detailed plans existed that would be much better and easier too. Maybe these mappers are not on this list. *shrug*

If there was a system/process in place that had accurate plans (allowed copyright) and timelines from an authorised source when construction began, when the road is opened, etc. We could use this. How we use it is a different matter - maybe someone wants to survey it, maybe someone wants to trace it.

I have visions of mappers jumping fences and running under the cover of darkness down half built roads with their expensive GPS devices just to get the info in OSM. 

Personally I think already showing on the map a road under construction is way more informative that simply adding a note. Once it opens then someone can make it 'live'.

I am not "automatically importing" anything here. It is not about that.

Maybe it is just down to "how much OSMers enjoy mapping new features" in their area.


> From: shaun at shaunmcdonald.me.uk
> Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2014 20:30:15 +0100
> To: danstowell+osm at gmail.com
> CC: talk-gb at openstreetmap.org
> Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Getting Highway Agency information into OSM
> 
> Maybe a simple method is to use the OSM notes system, which is what the feature was designed for?
> 
> Shaun
> 
> On 3 Jul 2014, at 19:10, Dan S <danstowell+osm at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > You know, rather than thinking about automatically importing any of
> > their data into OSM, my intuition is that given the concerns about OS
> > copyright, plus how much OSMers enjoy mapping new features, I'd
> > suggest using their data to create a web feed of "Hot new roads for
> > mappers to go and survey!" - I bet they'd all be mapped within a week
> > ;)
> > 
> > Dan
> > 
> > 2014-07-03 18:41 GMT+01:00 John Baker <rovastar at hotmail.com>:
> >> 
> >> Yeah I know we are pretty good at adding them. But this discussion started
> >> with the HA because there were roads that were not on OSM.
> >> 
> >> It was this project that he was working on.
> >> http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a23-handcross-to-warninglid/
> >> 
> >> So I personally added this in a rough way based on the descriptions from him
> >> who was on site at the time and the plans that were there (I didn't trace
> >> them just looked at them).
> >> 
> >> I don't (for a change) want to get into conversation about tracing imagery
> >> vs. doing it by hand. The point is what can we use.
> >> 
> >> My thought were that if there plans were based on the OS streetview (rather
> >> than the more detailed ones) then we could use them.
> >> 
> >> 
> >>> Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2014 18:23:34 +0100
> >>> From: osm at raggedred.net
> >>> To: talk-gb at openstreetmap.org
> >> 
> >>> Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Getting Highway Agency information into OSM
> >>> 
> >>> On 03/07/14 17:51, John Baker wrote:
> >>>> The first thing I am worried about is the copyright of the various
> >>>> plans. Some/many seem to be derived from OS maps.
> >>> 
> >>> A legitimate concern.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Now I am no expert on the copyright situation here and dialogue is
> >>>> difficult they know little about OSM really. He just said we release
> >>>> the plans and they are public domain.....
> >>> 
> >>> There is no mechanism in the UK for a body like the Highways Agency to
> >>> release data as PD. That is a mechanism used in countries like the US.
> >>> In the UK the info would have to be licensed using a specific licence,
> >>> such as the Open Government Licence. If the plans are based on OS maps
> >>> then OS would have to agree to release this, according to OS's
> >>> interpretation of copyright law. OS probably will not agree to this, but
> >>> it is worth asking :-).
> >>> 
> >>> Without a suitably agreed licence we cannot trace such plans into OSM.
> >>> You could visit the site and get GPS traces & photos to add such works
> >>> to OSM, which is usually what happens as soon as a new road gets opened.
> >>> 
> >>> I'd be interested if the Highway's Agency have opened new roads and they
> >>> are not included in OSM very soon after. That seems to me to be
> >>> something we are pretty good at.
> >>> 
> >>> --
> >>> Cheers, Chris
> >>> user: chillly
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>> Talk-GB at openstreetmap.org
> >>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
> >> 
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