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I'm new to editing and am trying to make sure that an address like,

"10185 90th Street NW, Edmonton, Canada"

will geocode correctly. Right now, this search doesn't find any results. If I change it to,

"10185 90 Street NW, Edmonton, Canada"

the same search returns the correct results. The problem is that I know people typically include "th" and "nd" suffix on many street names here in Canada so technically, the first search is valid. For example, my Mom will write "90th Street" on mail to our address. What is the best way to correct this problem? I've searched for "90 Street" and found dozens of segments which would need to be edited to add the correct suffix. It would probably also be correct to add this suffix to other streets and avenues in most locations in Canada, in which case it require editing thousands of segments.

Should I use alt_name on each motorway segment? Is there a better way to handle this? What about modifying Nominatim to understand number suffixes?

asked 22 Jul '13, 17:06

markbennett's gravatar image

markbennett
21111
accept rate: 0%


While you may want to check with a local (or at least north-american) mapper, writing "90th" instead of "90" seems like the right thing to do, as it cannot be read aloud naturally otherwise. So I'd use "90th" in the name tag, an maybe even forgo the use of an alt_name for "90" unless you find evidence that it is used in some cases. Try contacting the original mapper of those streets, or a local mailing-list to see if anybody defends the "90" spelling.

Regarding how to make the change, yes you need to do it on every segment of the street if it has been split in multiple osm ways. You can use shift-click to select multiple ways in your editor, and change the name of all of them in one go. If you use the JOSM editor, you can even use ctrl-f to search and select "name=.*90 Street.*" for example, if you prefer typing to clicking.

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answered 23 Jul '13, 14:28

Vincent%20de%20Phily's gravatar image

Vincent de P... ♦
17.3k18152249
accept rate: 19%

edited 23 Jul '13, 14:29

Thanks for the quick reply @vincent. It's disappointing to hear that the streets will need to be edited manually as there are many segments in my area. Hearing that it's possible to do with JOSM gives me hope however.

I'll start a discussion at the local level on the wiki as I believe the streets were all imported from a data export from the Canadian Government.

(23 Jul '13, 18:12) markbennett
2

Suggest using the talk-ca mailing list rather than the wiki - OSM doesn't generally use wiki talk pages for in-project communication and people are likely to miss your message if it's posted there.

(23 Jul '13, 18:27) Richard ♦

This sounds like it should be addressed on the nominatim (read: search engine) level, not necessarily in the data.

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answered 24 Jul '13, 13:24

gormo's gravatar image

gormo
2.9k32660
accept rate: 13%

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question asked: 22 Jul '13, 17:06

question was seen: 12,204 times

last updated: 24 Jul '13, 13:24

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum