[OSM-talk] Tagging dangerous areas

[Simon Hewison]

Iván Sánchez Ortega wrote:
> I don't think OSM is the place for statistics... it has been said over and 
> over "map what is on the ground".

But what we should be able to do is use the OSM data to easily correlate 
with available statistical sources, which means things like official 
boundaries and so on in the OSM dataset, so if someone said that 
statistically, the London Borough of Barnet has less car crime than Moss 
Side in Manchester, then it should be able to plot those areas on a map.

Whether anyone would want to build such overlays into applications like 
a vehicle navigation system "Find the nearest on-street free parking 
where I'll be able to come back and still likely find all my vehicle 
intact".. is another matter.

Not that any of this matters. Crime maps and statistics are always 
retrospective. Any crime figures for my street show a very low crime 
level, but that didn't stop my house being burgled and my car vandalised 
in the space of a weekend. If we can come up with a method of providing 
a reliable crime forecast and put it on a map, you've got a very 
valuable product. "If you leave your bicycle here after closing time at 
the local pub 'The Angle Grinder's tattood arms' then it's got a 25% 
chance of not being there tomorrow".

-- 
Simon Hewison