[Talk-us] Semi-import of TIGER 2011 in a small area

[Josh Doe]

On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:22 AM, Phil! Gold <phil_g at pobox.com> wrote:
> Are there any comments on my process or suggestions for things I should
> have done differently?  (It's a small enough area that I can go back and
> manually change things if needed.)

I've been doing something similar in my region (Fairfax County, VA),
but with the county's road data which has better attribution
(maxspeed, ref, weight/height limits). I've got a few comments:
1) Please consider comparing your tagging scheme to the wiki
(http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TIGER_2010). I created that table
semi-blindly, i.e. only reviewing documentation and not checking how
things are tagged in the real world. Your experience would be a
valuable addition (e.g. I see we differ on S1630 among others).
2) I don't see value in keeping any of the TIGER tags (e.g. linearid,
mtfcc, even source), except maybe the tiger:reviewed if you're doing
large imports without much checking. If you're checking for
connectivity, and spatial accuracy, I would leave the tag out.
3) I don't like to upload data that puts the database in an invalid
state, so I always do small chunks at a time so that I can correct
topology, add turning circles, etc.
4) I think we should compile a list of suggestions for manual
conflation. I edited http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Conflation and
created a new page with some tips on manual conflation with JOSM.
Please add your tips:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Manual_conflation

Of course our primary goals are to retain history whenever possible
(don't delete, but modify, unless non-CT clean).

Thanks for your contributions; lets get this information into the wiki!

-Josh