[Talk-us] US highway tagging (was Re: highway shields: "get your kicks, where?")

[Alex Mauer]

On 01/05/2011 09:50 AM, Richard Weait wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 4:09 PM, Alex Mauer<hawke at hawkesnest.net>  wrote:
>
>> Not sure if you’re looking for commentary on the shield overlay in general,
>> but it seems like it has some problems.  Take a look at I-39/US-51 here[1].
>>   Only one shield for I-39 until you scroll all the way south to Bloomington,
>> IL.
>>
>> I don’t know if that’s because it’s prioritizing US shields over interstate
>> shields or what, but it should show both at equal frequency.  It also seems
>> like there are way too many US-51 shields.
>
> When more than one relation is shared on a way, the shield placement
> is sensitive to relative way-length, and starting points.  Zoom in a
> bit and you get alternating shields.

You have to zoom in quite a bit (z11) to start seeing I-39 regularly. 
It makes it quite a bit harder to follow the route.

> The correct way to do this will be to find co-incident relations, and
> build a combined shield to place at each shield location, rather then
> alternating positions.  This scales better for multiple co-incident
> relations.  And it looks great.

It seems to me that the correct way is to actually alternate 
positions…at zoom 9 you see one I-39 shield near Wausau, and then 
bunches of US-51 shields as you go south.

I’m sure that building a combined shield would also do the job though, 
as long as it doesn’t end up too wide.

> I've added state routes in several states.  Check your favorite places
> in CA, CO, NH, NY, OH, MA, and a few others (so far).  I also added
> some shields in Australia the other day.

Ah, I only looked in WI.

>> I’d give the shields a black outline rather than putting them on a solid
>> black box.
>
> I understand that others will make different rendering choices when
> they build their styles.  ;-)
>
> I have nothing against the "die-cut" style of US shield, but the ones
> I see posted on the roads 'round here have the black rectangular
> background.  I think CA still uses the die-cut shield.  Do others?

As NE2 said, the black background is common on standalone signs but the 
die-cut style is used on the green guide signs [1].  I find the black 
corners distracting, and it loses the distinctive shape of the US sign. 
  It also looks sort of like the artifacts you see when text has the 
wrong-color background or a colored background instead of a transparent one.

Maybe try just a black outline on the shaped shield, or even just 
beveling the corners of the black outline?

—Alex Mauer “hawke”

1. http://www.aaroads.com/delaware/delaware010/us-040_eb_at_de-001_sb.jpg