[Talk-us] Ferries

[Clifford Snow]

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 8:49 AM, stevea <steveaOSM at softworkers.com> wrote:

> A very big +1 to this.  "Posing a challenge" to the construction of an
> accurate routing algorithm is a poor excuse to propose rippling through
> data changes for what would essentially be a one-off convenience.  Greg
> Troxel's suggestion about regular->service->regular and
> regular->service->ferry sounds perfectly reasonable and can certainly be
> made to work for this particular case.  Inside of a routing algorithm is
> exactly where this sort of decision-making belongs, not by making data
> changes that are more convenient for it.


I disagree that we are making one-off change. What we are doing is making
the map more useful. When adding an access ramp to a motorway we call it a
motorway link. The waiting area for ferries is a similar feature of a ferry
route. It certainly isn't a service road except in a broad sense. There was
agreement to tag the service=ferry to solve the problem. That wasn't my
first choice but it works.

There is a push in OSM to include addresses. One of the big advantages we
gain is the ability to route from door to door. For that we need ferry
routing. Living in an area with one of the largest ferry systems in the
world[1], I appreciate efforts to solve the problem.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Ferries
-- 
Clifford

OpenStreetMap: Maps with a human touch
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