First you are using OpenStreetMap and so anything can be tagged any
value no ifs no but about it.
Second when you view OSM you are never looking at the raw database. You
are looking at what a rendering system shows. On my machine JOSM shows
unclassified and residential in different colours.
Maperitive for example can be used to display anything in any way so how
the roads are displayed to you is irrelevant. Routing software may take
into account the highway classification.
Before the African wiki was done a very wide range of inconsistent
values where used to tag highways in Africa. It was people working in
HOT who struggled to come up with a more consistent way to classify
highways and the African wiki is what they arrived at.
I think Pierre was involved and a lot of discussion including locals
took place over the issues. I think the final outcome was more let's
classify the highways according to their function, ie if it leads only
to a field its a track. That's probably why the use of path rather than
footway was chosen, as Suzan has mentioned motorcycles use these paths.
I don't think you are aware of why unclassified is used as a tag. It
goes back in time to the roots of OSM which started in the UK and
Germany. Ordinance Survey set up shop in the UK with the idea of
creating maps for military use. They classified the major highways as
A, B, so A1 led from London North to Scotland etc. The minor roads
which weren't given a number were labelled quite simply unclassified and
that's the origin. In the UK it means a minor road and its use to mean
the same has been widely adopted within OSM. There are error checking
systems that throw errors up if a residential highway does not have a
name by the way, unclassified highways don't get flagged the same way.
There are definite advantages to using a standardised approach but it
isn't mandatory at all, in fact its only in HOT with its tiling and
validation system that the rules as such are followed and even then if
the highway has been mapped outside of HOT ie before the HOT tiles I
will leave it exactly as it has been mapped when validating.
I think you have to take into account different points of view, a dutch
mapper mentioned to me that he would never map a dirt road as anything
but a track in Holland, true enough but in Africa some dirt roads are
much more important than others and so what is relevant in Holland or
the US is not so relevant in Africa.
In OSM what the locals decide is correct is taken as gospel, and their
views were taken into account in the wiki. If the Peace Corp chooses to
use OSM then I think it should abide by the very few OSM rules there
are. You are always free to set up your own servers and create your own
mapping database but I think you'll do better within OSM than outside
it. If you're interested in tagging highways that a Peace Corp van or
car can use then car=yes is an option etc. Certainly within JOSM, with
iD you may have to live within the limitations of the software. If you
do so tag the highway by the way you'll need a rendering system to show
them.
Again the Peace Corps may come up with its own set of instructions that
do not follow the wiki. Fine but remember you're working with
volunteers and old fogies like me have got used to the wiki so we're
quite likely to quietly drift off and map / validate other projects.
Have fun
Cheerio John
Alex Bogedain <mailto:[email protected]>
June 14, 2016 5:51 PM
Hello All,
I am one of Chad Blevins' interns, and have been one of the more vocal
ones about being in disagreement with the Wiki and would like to do my
part to rationalize out why I am thinking this way.
In terms of the Unclassified/Tracks/Paths debate, in these rural areas
especially, I believe tracks should almost always win out. I say this
because if these indeterminable lines pass by and connect houses/huts
or fields, then the road type is clearly not unclassified, as it has a
classification of connecting residential or agricultural areas.
Further, it is indistinguishable for us at a distance to determine
between tracks and paths because one day a family could get a
motorbike and start traveling what could have been considered a path
with a motorized vehicle, or anyone for that matter could drive down
the path/track on a motorbike to access the houses or fields. From my
understanding, out in rural areas, especially Africa, there are no
controls on the modes of transportation as transportation is limited
to what any person is able to acquire within their means. Going
forward into the future this means that the modes will be changing as
more families get motorbikes or 4 x 4 vehicles, thus, classifying a
road as a track covers all the bases for now and moving forward. The
local population will be the ones to make the distinction and things
will change as time progresses.
To wrap up my thoughts on this, when viewing OSM (not logged in for
editing) residential and unclassified roads appear the same, but
tracks appear differently as how unmaintained roads would appear on
nearly any map around the world. In terms of the PMI and other
humanitarian initiatives, it would be disingenuous to classify these
narrow roads as unclassified as the users of the map should be ready
for a track, or possibly something untraversable for their vehicles.
If we are to map in terms of an areas actual use of roads, to my
understanding unclassified would not cover these types of roads and
would not describe them accurately at all for actual drive-ability.
Please let me know what you guys think!
Thank You,
Alex Bogedain
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