[Talk-us] Bus route relation names

[Martijn van Exel]

Hi, 

I started adding local bus route relations some time ago[1] (just the ways, not yet the stop locations etc) and named them according to the official names as listed on the UTA (agency) web site. I discussed this at one of our local map events. An example:

* UTA bus route 6 —> http://www.rideuta.com/Rider-Tools/Schedules-and-Maps/6-6th-Avenue?page=Bus-BusHome-Route6 <http://www.rideuta.com/Rider-Tools/Schedules-and-Maps/6-6th-Avenue?page=Bus-BusHome-Route6> name: “6th Avenue”. 
* OSM relation —> https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8338140 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8338140> 

As you can see `njtbusfan` has gone in and changed the name to something more descriptive but also something that doesn’t match either the official name *or* the suggested tagging[2] that suggests "<type of transport><reference number>: <from> → <to>”. I chose to use the official name but would be happy to conform to this convention if that’s what people tend to use in the U.S. as well. That is my first question.

What’s more, njtbusfan seems to have created new relations for the same route without adding them to the master relation. For example here is my master relation for UTA route 6: 8338141 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8338141> which has the eastbound / westbound children 8338140 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8338140> and 8338139 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/8338139>. He added 9485804, 9485805, 9485806, 9485807, 9485808, 9485809 which are not part of that master. Some of these routes contain new information (weekend routes) but some overlap with what was already there. Frankly I didn’t know how to map weekend / weekday variants of routes so I just stuck with the weekday route initially.

Finally, njbusfan did not check the OSM wiki for existing organized effort around adding bus routes in my area[1] or existing local conventions which suggested a naming convention that diverged from what’s on the wiki (appropriate or not).

So it’s a bit of a mess, and part of it may very well be me being a relative novice at this, but there are a few things that are demonstrably sloppy / wrong. But what concerns me is that this mapper seems to have been going around the country adding / changing bus route relations. I have initiated a discussion with them here[3] and would like it if others can weigh in here as well. Njtbusfan, if you’re on this list, thanks for reading and let us know your plans, please.

Martijn

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Utah/Transit <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Utah/Transit> 
[2] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_transport#Service_routes <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Public_transport#Service_routes> 
[3] https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/69327505 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/69327505> 
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