Ed Loach wrote: >> As has been >> mentioned before, the process of hunting down an elusive >> postbox often has >> the benefit of some other missing feature getting mapped as >> well, just >> because you happen to be in the neighbourhood. >> > > I'd agree with that (and can also think of two adjacent postboxes > with different references, which I hadn't considered earlier). This > morning I was out verifying bus stops before work (more accurately I > was trying to get to Colchester for 06:30 when Wickes opened, so I > could be home again before work, but stopped at many of the stops en > route except for a few where they loomed out of the mist too late > for me to stop safely with a vehicle close behind me) and found a > whole new lane I'd missed every other time I'd driven past it, which > is often. I think I also spotted some recently constructed > residential cul-de-sacs that I don't remember being there last time > I passed, so will check and perhaps map those when I go to Wickes > next (when their forklift driver gets to work they'll move the stock > from out back into store so I can actually buy it). So probably this > evening, though might not as I may take a different route to > Colchester and try and get the route of the 74 verified to the same > level as the 76 route I followed this morning. > > But if I weren't trying to spot bus stops I wouldn't have spotted > the lane I think I had previously dismissed as a driveway (which as > it only goes to a farm is perhaps what it effectively is). > > Although perhaps bus stops is a bad example as that is a case where > the data has been imported. > > Ed > > I have hunted post boxes and bus stops. I used the RM list to find post boxes. It was a struggle to find some (two seem to have vanished off the face of the earth), but in the process I improved all sorts of things, POIs, speed limits, corrected some mis-spellings, found closed pubs etc. Post boxes are scattered all over the place; the locations given on the RM list are often cryptic and sometimes just plain wrong. The Draco site allows anyone to position a box anywhere. Just pick a box off the list and plonk it on the map, which is exactly what some people have done. Some people have used the RM description and assumed the location, without checking. That is why I think loading Draco's data is a bad idea. Using the original FoIA response list to find boxes on the ground is a completely different process.
I have used the NaPTAN import to find bus stops. I treat it as a similar process, except that the NaPTAN stops were surveyed in the first place (yeah I know it doesn't always seem like it). You can apply corrections to the imported data to improve them and by reporting any discrepancies to your local council there is a chance that they will improve NaPTAN too. I am skeptical about the idea that data imports improve OSM. I think they can be valuable, but I think they should be imported for an area where someone local to that area can take responsibility for checking them, either before or after importing, so that their true value can be realised and we don't just import junk. Cheers, Chris _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb