In terms of existing traffic count data, the problem is that generally (and indeed as is the case in Oxfordshire) it tends to be available only for A and B roads rather than many unclassified (and C) roads.
The problem with marking lightly trafficked roads as 'quiet lanes' on OSM is that this is actually a formal legal designation, the rural equivalent of a home zone. I'm not aware of any other country other than the UK that has anything similar. You can see the sign by rule 218 of the Highway Code, although some pre-2006 schemes used a different sign: www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069858 So there should be a 'quiet_lane' value for highway, just as there is 'living_street'. I agree that having some data on whether country lanes are havens of tranquillity or rat runs is really useful for route planning and leisure purposes, or indeed trying to protect them from further motor traffic increases. That's why CPRE has been working on this issue: www.cpre.org.uk/filegrab/quiet-lanes.pdf?ref=1888 Unfortunately motor traffic has been growing faster on these roads than any other type and this has had a big impact in many rural areas: www.cpre.org.uk/filegrab/increases-in-motor-traffic-levels-1993-20071.pd f?ref=3821 So is there a simple way to record when the traffic data was gathered (as opposed to when it was added to OSM)? At a risk of getting too complex, in some areas there's a big difference in motor traffic levels at the weekend: in the City of London they are very low, around rural pubs and honey pot sites they can be high, even if the weekly average is low. Perhaps best just to have something simple like a 'lightly_trafficked' tag for quiet urban streets as well as country lanes? Ralph PS I've had some great cycling on twisty Cornish lanes, just got to make sure one's brakes are functioning perfectly and you know which bank to jump on if someone else comes round the corner too quickly... ------------------ Craig Loftus craigloftus+osm at googlemail.com Tue Jan 25 16:37:59 GMT 2011 Something reminded me of this thread and my suggestion that data for some roads may already be collected. This seems to be true of Oxfordshire and it is even published. The counts are collected by automatic and manual means by the Transport Monitoring team of Oxfordshire County Council. http://bit.ly/hf7rI0 The descriptions of the sections of road covered leave a lot to be desired but it is useful data none the less. There isn't a mention of license for reuse so I've just sent off an inquiry. Cheers, Craig On 20 January 2011 23:05, ael <law_ence.dev at ntlworld.com> wrote: > On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 01:58:43PM +0000, Craig Loftus wrote: > > I like the idea. And although I like the simplicity, I think it might be > > worth somehow taking account for seasonable variability. There a number > of > > Agreed. In Cornwall, for example, roads that are very quiet for most of > the year become insanely busy during the tourist season. Mind you the > high banks and restricted views make cycling on those narrow twisty roads > something not to be undertaken lightly in any season. > > Adrian > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-GB mailing list > Talk-GB at openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb > ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Take a day out in the countryside: Enjoy discounted entry to over 200 countryside attractions when you become a member http://www.cpre.org.uk/support/joinus ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ This email is confidential and may also be legally privileged. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message from your system.Views expressed in this message are those of the sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of CPRE. This email and its attachments have been virus checked by Sophos Anti-Virus. No virus is believed to be resident but it is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that your systems will not be harmed by any of its contents. The Campaign to Protect Rural England. Registered in England No.4302973. Registered Office 128 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SW. CPRE is a registered charity (Reg. No. 1089685) Telephone: 020 7981 2800. Fax: 020 7981 2899. Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.cpre.org.uk _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
