[Talk-us] Highway shields

[Richard Weait]

On Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 2:53 PM, Val Kartchner <val42k at gmail.com> wrote:
> I know that we've discussed this before, and there was no consensus to
> change the current rendering.

"Changing the rendering" is something we can each do for ourselves.
What we can't do is tell anybody else to change their rendering.

> However, I think that we should to better
> than the other mapping services.  We should have a shield for highways
> that have such.

Yes.  We've seen this done on topOSM for a year or so and on MapQuest
more recently.

> Despite the images that I gave that demonstrated otherwise, there were
> more people that thought that adding shields made the numbers unreadable
> than those who thought they were readable.  What if, instead, we put the
> shields before the numbers.  So, for instance UT-67 would be rendered
> (as an ASCII example) like this "[]67)"  Where "[]" is the shield, "67"
> is the number, and ")" is the oval (also around 67) that is currently
> done.
>
> What do you think about this?

Have you got a demo of what you are suggesting?  It sounds like you
are suggesting rendering the shield beside the reference number.
Would the shield have number in it as well, then the larger, more
legible number beside it?


Here are a couple of examples from my shield server.


1) Tampa, FL

http://weait.com:8080/map/shield.html?zoom=12&lat=27.96076&lon=-82.41002&layers=BTT

Interstate and US route shields.  Normal and wide.


2) Los Angeles, CA

http://weait.com:8080/map/shield.html?zoom=14&lat=34.0707&lon=-118.25368&layers=BTT

California state route shields, normal and wide. In contrast to the
Interstate shields, I left the "California" text in place and reduced
the reference number size.


3) Syracuse NY

http://weait.com:8080/map/shield.html?zoom=12&lat=43.0837&lon=-76.14661&layers=BTT

US route shields normal and wide.


4) Guelph, Ontario

http://weait.com:8080/map/shield.html?zoom=14&lat=43.44969&lon=-80.1458&layers=BTT

Highway 6 meets highway 401 and is coincident for one exit.  401
continues West-East.  Highway 6 continues North from the West and
South from the East.  Notice a couple of things in this example.

a) clustered shields.  I don't know how to do this yet without a hack.
 Ideally, I'd like this to be something clever that detects
overlapping route relations, and assembles clustered shields from
their individual shield images.

b) two different shield styles for 6.  The old style is a 1:1
pixel-built png shield with a larger numeral. The newer style is
reduced from a larger svg.