Dear Richard,

thank you very much for checking and changing these roads.

ad 1)
railway=rail is a tag for railroads, railway=spur is a tag for short sidetracks. Some railroads are legally considered as sidetracks, maybe even all Class III railroads are officially considered as sidetracks. However, a 100-mile-track is too long to serve as a spur.

The fact that one of three editors (JOSM, Mercaator, Potlatch) doesn't support a tag doesn't mean that this tag is invalid.

Currently, there is a discussion about a new classification system for railroads which needs some international participation.

osm.wiki/Proposed_features/detailed_Railway_Network

ad 2)

Of course not. First, there are some tourist trains on this line:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Eastern_Railway

Second, some people are interested where to find disused stations, so it would be nice to mark them with disused=yes. It will take some time to show disused stations on the map as it took some time to show abandoned railroads on the map.

Openstreetmap is a long-term project and it will take some time to find a system that fits all railroads properly.

Best regards
FK270673

Thanks, it works!

My second comment was sent by email, but your comment hasn't been sent by email. Why?

What happens if you change your edit some hours later as I did with my edit?

1. If these roads are narrower than mapped, downgrade them, e.g. track -> path
2. If these roads are incorrect, remove them AFTER having drawn your own way. You can remove roads in Potlatch with SHIFT+DEL, but it takes several attempts and a lot of time until the server confirms the change.
3. Please don't forget to designate National Road 5A from Puente Paucartambo to Oxapampa with ref=5A. All other roads are no primaries, of course.

http://www.mtc.gob.pe/portal/transportes/red_vial/rutasold/longitudinales.htm
http://www.mtc.gob.pe/portal/transportes/red_vial/rutasold/transversales.htm

Cordialmente,
FK270673

At least xybot exists since October 2008:
osm.wiki/index.php/User:Xybot

At least, xybot makes a very good job correcting German spelling mistakes.

Furthermore, it standardizes religious denominations, e.g. catolic > catholic. Of course it cannot handle tags where mappers don't know the difference between baptist and lutheran (or the difference between protestant and prostitute).

Concerning organisational affiliation, I would suggest to add one or two additional tags (e.g. church membership, diocese, language or liturgy) instead of reverting all xybot spelling corrections.

FK270673

It is also possible to tag an area as hospital, as I did just a minute ago.

Best regards,
FK270673

Du kannst beispielsweise den Kommentar durch Striche --- ersetzen. Oder Du siehst es positiv und informierst die anderen, indem Du Deine Änderungen im Kommentar beschreibst ("kl.", "Kleinkram", "korr.", "red.", "techn."). Falls Du Dich auf eine bestimmte Einrichtung spezialisiert hast (z.B. Bahnübergänge), dann kannst Du das im Kommentarfeld beschreiben, damit andere Dich als Spezialist für Bahnübergänge wahrnehmen.

In Potlatch braucht man übrigens keinen Kommentar einzugeben, selbst wenn man gerade eine ganze Kleinstadt höchstpersönlich ergänzt hat.

Gruß FK270673

Straße schreibt man mit scharfem S! Wir freuen uns immer über neue Benutzer, die falsche Straßennamen korrigieren und an die geltende Rechtschreibung (ä,ö,ü,ß) anpassen.

Einfache GPS-Empfänger (z.B. i-Blue 747) kann man bei ebay kaufen. Einschalten, in den Rucksack packen, losfahren und am Ende der Tour wieder ausschalten. Dann braucht man nur noch die GPS-Daten auf den heimischen Computer übertragen, mit Hilfe eines Konvertierungsprogramms ins GPX-Format umwandeln und bei Openstreetmap hochladen. Spätestens nach ein, zwei Stunden erkennt jeder, welche Knöpfe zu drücken sind.

Teure GPS-Empfänger (Garmin) sind keineswegs genauer, aber sie sind etwas einfacher zu bedienen. Seniorenverständliche Benutzerführung kostet halt Geld.

Gruß FK270673

Track quality is far more depending on personal behavior than on technical devices. In narrow city streets, you get the best tracks when walking on the middle of the road. If a car forces you to jump onto the sidewalk, your whole track becomes weird. Are there any receivers who recognize such moves? Is there any receiver who logs all your moves, e.g. when playing soccer? If you know such a receiver, please let me know.

Yours, FK270673

After having collected some tracks, I would also like to share my experience:

i-Blue 747 is a cheap and good GPS receiver which can be carried in a rucksack.

Cycling creates the best tracks because you are sitting smoothly on the saddle. If you don't want to get tired by cycling up to the hill, a scooter would probably create the same track quality.

Walking creates less good tracks because every time you turn around, the GPS receiver jumps 20 meters away.

Within a bus, the GPS tracks are usually 20 metres away from the real site. However, there might be some places (e.g. driver's seat) where the signal is better.

Driving a car produces better results on WIDE roads, but you might get stuck in a NARROW road when two tractors want to pass your car. I have sometimes mapped narrow streets where I was able to pass ONLY with a bicycle.

Yours, FK270673

Einen kapitalen Anfängerfehler, den JEDER neuen Benutzer begeht, habe ich noch vergessen zu erwähnen:
Die Elisabethstraße ist noch nicht mit der Höttingstraße verbunden.

Mit etwas Übung lernt man irgendwann, die angrenzende Straße genau zu treffen.

Gruß FK270673

Hallo shortyx,

Deine Einträge sehen schon ganz ordentlich aus.

Es wäre jedoch sinnvoll, bei allen Straßen grundsätzlich auch die Oberfläche (surface) und die Höchstgeschwindigkeit (maxspeed) einzutragen. Kopfsteinpflaster (surface=cobblestone) ist beispielsweise nicht für Skater geeignet und für Radfahrer ebenfalls kein Vergnügen. Außerdem wäre es nett, wenn Du als Quelle source=GPS oder source=survey eintragen würdest. Das ist in Regionen ohne Datenspende und ohne Luftbild zwar selbstverständlich, aber es dokumentiert den persönlichen Einsatz. Außerdem vermisse ich noch ein paar Ampeln, die auf dem Knotenpunkt einer Kreuzung als zusätzliches Attribut platziert werden.

Das sind erstklassige Standards, die aber nicht von jedem Teilnehmer beachtet werden.

Eine Unterführung kannst du einzeichnen, indem Du das unterirdische Straßenstück mit layer=-1 oder tunnel=yes einzeichnest. Eine Brücke (bridge=yes und layer=1, bei besonders komplizierten Autobahnkreuzungen kann man auch layer=2 oder layer=3 verwenden) oder Unterführung hat natürlich keinen gemeinsamen Knotenpunkt mit der gekreuzten Straße.

Gruß FK270673

Openstreetmap is an approach to display a complex world on a flat map. Mappers have to assign a limited choice of symbols to a variety of real objects. This categorization cannot be done by a single man in a limited period of time (though I am sometimes dreaming of doing it).

So we have different levels of coordination requirement:
1. For technical reasons, symbols are used worldwide.
2. However, real objects have attributes which are depending on their natural, cultural and economic environment. It is useless to talk with African mappers about the difference between forest and wood, because in Africa there are not many maintained forests. So you have to discuss these topics with mappers of your cultural neighborhood (i.e. your country).
3. For historical and political reasons, some real objects don't fit standardized patterns.
4. Some users do not agree to standardization proposals and continue to use their personal favorites in their mapping area. If you haven't seen the real object before, it is difficult to decide whether the symbol is appropriate.
5. Some users have tried to propose standardized rules in different places (diary, forum, mailing list, wiki), but these proposals have been forgotten.

Of course, it would be useful to create a common unified standardization system. However, programming of a self-selecting editor takes a lot of time and needs some active programmers.

Yours FK270673

Hello Danny,

unfortunately you didn't write where you live. If you live in the United States, for example, you just need to fix existing roads.

If you live in an unmapped rural area, mapping will take more time.

There are several steps of mapping which can be done by different users:

1. Collecting tracks by walking, cycling and driving around.
2. Converting tracks from KML/NMEA to GPX
3. Uploading tracks to OSM server
4. Editing tracks by drawing a line from one edge of track to another edge
5. Adding information about this route (street name, max speed etc.)
6. Connecting routes and adding areas between these roads

Using other maps is dangerous because they might contain some errors. These errors can be used as proof for copying their maps. Please check carefully if there are errors on the city's map.

The most simple way to edit a map is Potlatch, the online editor. You just need to click the EDIT tab and Potlatch will automatically start on your browser.
Each edit with Potlatch will be saved forever.

osm.wiki/Potlatch/Primer

JOSM is an editor for advanced users.

osm.wiki/JOSM

If you are confused with all these possibilities, look here:

osm.wiki/Map_Features

If you have a particular configuration (Opera 2.x on BeOS 0.x), try another post on this diary.

Yours FK270673

Well, you can still reuse these sidewalk lines for residential areas by simply renaming them.

Finally, the footpath along Chicago River looks fantastic. There aren't many cities with such a great riverside walking opportunity.

osm.org/?lat=53.07527&lon=8.80142&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF

Your mapping makes Chicago attractive for visitors.

Yours, FK270673

Sorry, a public footpath is something different than a sidewalk. A footpath is a pedestrian shortcut which can be used by walkers, but not by cars. Urban planners intended these footpaths to encourage walking in urban areas.

Here is one example from Germany:
osm.org/?lat=53.23715&lon=8.79461&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF

And here are two examples from California:
osm.org/?lat=37.81909&lon=-122.23962&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
osm.org/?lat=37.95082&lon=-121.98281&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF

There is still a controversy whether and how to map sidewalks.

Big roundabouts a drawn as separate circular street, together with junction=roundabout, small roundabouts are marked at the crossing point.

Yours FK270673

Farmland and farmyard are approved features since August 2008, but the Mapnik developers didn't update their renderer so far. Shame on them ;-)

FK270673

Parks are areas. Areas are created by drawing their boundaries which need to be connected as a closed loop.

Unfortunately the Potlatch Primer does not describe the creation of areas.

Best regards
FK270673