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If a bus generally travels between point A, and point B, but may begin is journey in the middle of that route, or stop in the middle of the route, without continuing further, should these specific routes be treated as separate relations? And likewise, if a normal route is from A to B, but after a certain time, it only uses part of the route, should this be treated as a separate relation?

For example, Metrobus Route 400 in the UK from Maidenbower in Crawley, will normally travel to Redhill from East Grinstead, through Crawley, and Gatwick Airport, but after a certain time, will only travel to Crawley and Gatwick Airport. Should there be a separate relation for the full route, and then another one for the limited route?

In short, if A is East Grinstead, B is Gatwick, and C is Redhill, if the normal route is A -> B -> C, but after about 6 pm, it only goes from A -> B, should this be a separate relation, even if it's entirely part of the same route?

asked 16 Oct '13, 00:44

TheUltimateKoopa's gravatar image

TheUltimateK...
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accept rate: 0%


Yes, please map these as different routes. This gets in particular useful if you also add the operation times with the tag "opening_hours" to the respective relations. Then a user of the map data gets the desired information "operates only between A and B in the evening hours."

Please consider using JOSM and its public_transport plugin. That plugin allows to create shorter routes just per copy-and-paste, thus it is done in a minute.

permanent link

answered 16 Oct '13, 06:49

Roland%20Olbricht's gravatar image

Roland Olbricht
6.7k36489
accept rate: 36%

1

Generally, how do you show that a bus only takes a certain route at certain times, and/or certain dates? In otherwords, the non-school service may start at one place at 8:10 am, and end up at the other end of its route at 8:54 am, which is easy, but what if there's a school route which starts from a school at 7:42, then joins on to the main route at 8:10 to continue the normal route? For that part of the route which is only used once, that isn't part of the normal route, that starts at 7:42 and ends at 8:10, how is that done?

(17 Oct '13, 00:15) TheUltimateK...

If you really encounter this school service important, feel free to make a separate relation out of this.

OSM is not short of relation-ids, so you can happily create extra relations if needed, but rather short of mapper time. If you deem something important, just map it.

After having a look at the 410 timetable: There is a regular service from Holland Mill to Redhill (and back), without Oxted High Street, roughly every 30 minutes all over the day. That's the service of high usefullness to the general public, and I would be lazy enough to ony map that service.

(17 Oct '13, 06:56) Roland Olbricht

Even though it's possible to add all possible route variations to OSM, and even at the creation step it's quite easy to copy/paste, I would recommend against doing so. It will make maintenance harder, without any real benefit. If somebody breaks the route, you will now have several more route relations to fix.

(08 Feb '15, 10:12) Polyglot
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question asked: 16 Oct '13, 00:44

question was seen: 4,813 times

last updated: 08 Feb '15, 10:12

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