OpenStreetMap
As the OSM Wiki was void with specific tagging guidelines for any East African country, I decided to take that work upon me. I wanted to do a country specific guide for Uganda in the first place. But I soon realized that most of it would most probably apply to other places in East Africa. So here it is: osm.wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines I’d be happy to see lots of you contributing. So if anyone wants to add in more information, please feel free.
Discussion
Comment from Warin61 on 30 May 2015 at 02:01
Hi, Thanks for your work. There are similarities to Australia .. lack of motorways etc. You might consider the page osm.wiki/Australian_Tagging_Guidelines for ideas?
Roads .. I’ve several differences to what is on osm.wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines.
Firstly the paved or unpaved ‘problem’. I’d put this first before the road categories. At the moment a highway=track looks like it must be paved!
Secondly - unclassified roads can be used to link suburbs in a city/town .. so they can be used in urban areas.
Third … Track does not have to be used with track_type .. it is ‘nice’ when it is used but not a requirement.
There are probably some others too.
I’ll not do such ‘editorials’ myself .. I’d rather you reread it .. and compare it to the main wiki pages .. maybe even read the Australian page .. and they see what you think.
Comment from Jotam on 30 May 2015 at 11:28
Hey Warin, thank for your appreciation and the helpful comments. I have added the information about unclassified roads in urban areas as well as adjusted the wording about the use of tracktype=*. I fail to see, however, why my description implies that tracks must be paved. This is of course not at all the case. Thank you again for your critical reading and your input.
Comment from Warin61 on 30 May 2015 at 23:05
Ok, The page says “This tag should only be used for highways providing access to agricultural facilities. Never use Track to mark an unpaved or unsealed road that does not serve agricultural purposes and should therefore be tagged otherwise! “
So an unpaved road in a National Park, Wildlife Reserve etc … cannot be a track? If it is sealed .. it can be a track? I mark the smaller unpaved National Park management tracks as track around here .. and that is what they are called by the ‘locals’. They look, feel and ride the same as ‘agricultural tracks’.
I think you need to remove the references to paved/unpaved from the highway classifications .. put paved/unpaved at the top. Then do the classifications, the classification should be separate from the surface. But it is my opinion! Get some others too.
Please note the Australian view, not only on highway classification but towns too. .
Comment from Jotam on 31 May 2015 at 19:46
Warin, I’ve added the information about tracks in National Parks to the “track” description. Thanks for your input on this. It had clearly escaped me.
About paved/unpaved: Throughout the whole article I several times stress the fact that a road’s physical surface is not at all an sufficient indicator of it’s category. I do believe, however, that the surface can give a first hint to the importance of a road. In the West, you will find almost every road tarmaced, even the smallest one. But in Africa usually only the more important roads will have a sealed surface. So clearly the surface can give some help in coming to an assessment. This is why I would like to keep the surface references in the classification part.
Having said this, I deliberately added the picture from South Sudan to raise awareness about the fact that paved/unpaved alone is highly insufficient for category evaluation.
Comment from Warin61 on 1 June 2015 at 00:29
” In the West, you will find almost every road tarmaced, even the smallest one.”
Not in Australia … Both the “Plenty Highway” and the “Sandover Highway” are unpaved .. and you’d not want to run a modern family car let alone a sports car over them. There has been talk for many years (if not decades) of paving the “Plenty Highway” … don’t think I’ll see that in my life time.
I’ve just mapped a paved road from a town to a railway stop (some distance .. less than 100 but more than 40?).. there are quite unmapped paved roads around the place. But you’ll find the main unpaved roads have been mapped before all these smaller paved roads .. simply because of there importance.