[Talk-us] [Imports] Zipcode Import

[Katie Filbert]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 2:54 PM, jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com <
jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com> wrote:

>
> This is even more detailed,
> I have uploaded the osm files :
>
> http://ia341327.us.archive.org/0/items/OpenstreetmapZipcodes/tl_2009_34_zcta5.osm
> and
>
> http://ia341327.us.archive.org/0/items/OpenstreetmapZipcodes/tl_2009_34_zcta3.osm
>
>
Using cartographic license, the Census Bureau came up with boundaries that
do not overlap.  These are not the same as official USPS zip codes, used for
mail delivery.

Also, the Census Bureau zip code files are way out of date.  (although it's
2009 TIGER data, the zip codes are dated 2002 and 2000)

Please try some other unit of geography, such as Census tracts, for dividing
up OSM data in chunks to work on.  For importing, zip code boundaries are
not appropriate for OSM.

-Katie

PS. - Do note that using and not understanding zip code polygons is a common
mistake seen in academic literature, such as using them to normalized date.
It happens even in some scholarly geography journal articles.
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