[Talk-us] Import accurate streets in Portland, Oregon - Trimet

[Mike N]

> Questions for the talk-us:
> 1) How do you feel about some kind of automatic editing or (selective)
> import? Other methods?

   Hi PJ,

    The actual method of import doesn't matter - only the quality of the 
result is important.   Roads and trails should properly connect to 
existing data with no duplicates.

> 2) How do I go about doing that? (I heard of something called RoadMatcher)?

   I just did an import for Murray County, OK last week.  I did a remove 
/ replace operation because most roads had never been edited, and many 
road names had been changed.  Something like RoadMatcher would be much 
better because
    Existing OSM attributes, history, and edits would be preserved 
without a manual copy operation.
    Easy to copy correct geometry onto existing road.

   I glanced at RoadMatcher, but I am not familiar with the toolset that 
goes with it.

    Expect some manual work with any import to properly stitch new or 
updated roads onto any existing roads.

    There is some interest in writing an OSM tool for JOSM or another 
editor that will streamline all the operations, but the timeline is not 
known.

> 3) Any other input?

   Some types of data fit into OSM better than others.  Natural imports 
are roads, trails, bike routes, park and golf course boundaries (which 
are often difficult or impossible to survey by hand, and existing park 
boundaries are easy to spot on the map or detect in the OSM dataset). 
Having updated roads, trails, and routes in OSM allow other navigation 
tools to work with the data and provide seamless routing to the rest of 
the country.   Public transit routes also fit in OSM, but since Trimet 
will be using a multi-modal approach, it is best to postpone bringing 
this data in last, if at all, unless it can be automated so that it is 
always up to date.