I applied to KCC for permission to use data from their Highways
Gazetteer in OSM. They have approved on the condition that the data is
attributed to them. My request and their official reply are below. What
this gives us is an authorititave source for road numbering and
classification in Kent (excluding Medway), although it does require a
little bit of thinking as there are no coordinates, only road and place
names. So for example we take Whitehill Road and Highcross Road between
Longfield and Bean [1] the Gazetteer makes clear that these roads are
still officially the B255, even though the signs have not revealed this
for years. For the attribution they require I intend to use
source:ref=kent.gov.uk.
Which brings me to a dilemma: If a road is ostensibly one type but
officially another, how should this be tagged? Both are "verifiable."
Traditionally the official classification takes precedence - otherwise
the single-track A-roads in the Scottish highlands and islands might
better be tagged as as "track" in some cases... The Wiki [2]
specifically refers to the Administrative classifications.
Another use of this Gazetteer is to arbitrate between road classes,
particularly between tertiary (i.e. C-roads) and unclassified, where
there is mostly no visible difference "on the ground". That throws up
the odd anomaly as well: New Ash Green [3] got its very own bypass in
the seventies, which is single carriageway but very wide. The much
smaller original "main road" which goes through the village still
retains the "C" classification, and the relatively enormous bypass is
still "unclassified".
It occurred to the cynic in me that the lengths of roads of various
classes might be fed into some spreadsheet in Whitehall to calculate
some kind of grant to the local councils, giving them an interest in
keeping the administrative classifications as "high" as possible,
despite downgrading them on the ground. But that's unlikely to be true
of course.
Colin Smale
[1]
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.40868&lon=0.2965&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.40868&lon=0.2965&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF>
[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features#Highway
[3]
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.3665&lon=0.30171&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.3665&lon=0.30171&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF>
=========================
Dear Sirs,
I am one of an army of volunteers who collectively are producing and
maintaining "openstreetmap.org" ( _http://www.openstreetmap.org/_ ), a
crowd-sourced map of the world under the CC-BY-SA (Creative Commons by
Share-Alike) licence ( _http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/_
), with which you may be familiar.
Having found the KCC Highways Gazetteer, I would like to request your
permission to use and republish certain information contained in this
document by incorporating it in OpenStreetMap.
One of the problems we frequently face is that the official category of
a road (or segment thereof) is not always immediately obvious "on the
ground". I would like to use this document to classify (minor) roads
correctly as (for example distinguishing between "unclassified" and
"tertiary"), add the official road number, and possibly its status as a
private (unadopted) street. The Highways Gazetteer contains no location
information (other than place names) and therefore is probably
unencumbered by Ordnance Survey restrictions, which would render the
data unusable in the CC-BY-SA licence model. The alignment of the road
will still be surveyed "on the ground", but thereafter the Gazetteer
will be used to classify the road correctly as mentioned.
Yours sincerely,
Colin Smale
=========================
Dear Mr Smale,
Further to your request for information relating to re-use of
information from the Kent Highways Gazetteer, because the information
you have requested falls under the scope of the Freedom of Information
Act (FoIA) and is information held within the Environment, Highways &
Waste Directorate (the directorate), your request has been forwarded to
me so that I can co-ordinate the response on behalf of the directorate.
This is to comply with procedures that the County Council has for
dealing with all FoIA requests.
You ask the Council:
* Having found the KCC Highways Gazetteer, I would like to request
your permission to use and republish certain information contained
in this document by incorporating it in OpenStreetMap
Although the response below has been sent from me, I have liaised with
Kent Highway Services who have provided the following in answer to your
request:
Kent County Council are willing to allow the information in the Highway
Gazetteer to be used for the purpose of Open Street Map on the proviso
that we receive confirmation that the data source is kent.gov.uk.
=========================
On 03/01/2010 12:36, Colin Smale wrote:
While searching the internet for arbitration in a case where "local
wisdom" appeared to conflict with OSM data I came across the Kent County
Council Highways Gazetteer. It contains a "complete" list of roads in
Kent, including their reference, road number, name, official
classification, parish and length.
It's a PDF file, linked from here:
http://www.kent.gov.uk/roads_and_transport/transport_policies/road_status/adopted_and_private_streets.aspx
I would like to use this document to classify minor roads correctly as
"unclassified" or "tertiary", add the official road number, at least to
the "tertiary" roads, i.e. C-roads, and possibly "access=permissive"
where the road is a privately maintained road (assuming unhindered
access etc. as described on the Wiki).
There is no sign of any OS-encumbrances; there is no real location
information in the file. The KCC (together with district councils I
assume) can be considered a fairly authoritative source for this
information.
Would it be OK to derive tagging in this way? Should we get explicit
permission from KCC first? Anyone got any experience with this, or
example emails for this kind of request?
Colin
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