OpenStreetMap
I love to straighten up some of the mess that is Apache Co. AZ, but I need some guidance on what we're mapping. The US census maps that were used as the base here show many double track user created paths & not so many accurate legal roads.
Should I just add the asphalt roads on top of the existing, all county roads (dirt maintained & unmaintained)
For this area to make any sense most of what is on the map now need to go away.
Discussion
Comment from 42429 on 12 January 2012 at 18:57
Welcome to our project!
Our roads were imported from TIGER, which is free, but not perfect US federal government data. It includes all ways where US federal or state officers ever have driven with their vehicles. Many roads have been automatically converted to "residential". That's obviously wrong in many parts of the United States and we need to correct them:
- tertiary roads are numbered county roads serving as collector roads, e.g. this gravel road from Breckenridge to Como:
osm.org/?lat=39.4151&lon=-105.9592&zoom=13&layers=M
- minor / unclassified roads are maintained rural roads
- residential roads are urban or suburban roads
- track is a unmaintained or hardly maintained way for 4WD verhicles
- footway is a well-maintained footpath, e.g. in a city park
- cycleway is a well-maintained cycleway, e.g. as part of a greenbelt
- path is a trail only for hikers, maybe also for horses or mountainbikes
And finally, some roads don't exist at all:
osm.org/?lat=40.78283&lon=-72.93809&zoom=15&layers=M
They have never been built because the real estate agent went bankrupt before he was able to start housing construction.
- You may remove all non-existing ways (by clicking on the trashbox)
- You are invited to downgrade all unmaintained / unsurfaced ways to "track" (if accessible by 4WD) or "path" (if accessible on foot / by mountainbike)
- On the left toolbar, you can see a button "residential road". If you click on this button, you will see a selection of other alternatives:
- Roads (suitable for cars, at least for SUV) -> track
- Tracks (not suitable for cars) -> generic path
- With the second tab below the road type button "labelled "D.."), you can add a surface (dirt / gass / gravel).
It will take some time to check all roads manually, and of course we cannot take any guarantee whether you can drive safely with an SUV on any of these roads.
Yours, FK270673
Comment from GeekonaBike on 13 January 2012 at 14:43
Thanks, I should have just read the Documentation. This Is the push I needed to get started. I was Cartographic Aid with the Census Bureau for the 1970s census, so I may have have indirect responsibility for some of the Tiger errors :-) Now that I have the time, equipment & some GIS skills I correct as much as I can.
I seem to have lost my smart phone yesterday, but still have several Garmin GPSs + a Maemo PDA (n800 w/external 32ch receiver). For now retracing Bing ariel on the worst Tiger errors should keep me busy.