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Someone in my area added speed limit signs along major roads as nodes. They are tagged: maxspeed=55 mph Someone, possibly the same person, has updated the maxspeed tag on the roads themselves, possibly using the nodes as guidance. I am wondering if I should delete the nodes now that they have served their useful purpose and appear to contain duplicate information (I am taking upon myself general cleanup of the area) or leave them alone since they represent valid physical objects - speed limit signs. The nodes were created in May 2010, so I don't think it's a work in progress. |
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OpenStreetMap stores full history information for all objects. This means that you can easily find out who placed the objects, and who updated the maxspeed tags - no need for speculation a la "someone, possibly the same person". Some editors can show the object history at a keystroke; but you can also access the history by simply zooming into the area of interest on www.openstreetmap.org and then select the "data" layer from the layer drop-down behind the "+" button on the top right. Select the road, or sign, in question on the map, then click "Show History". The best course of action is to discuss the matter with whoever placed the signs and agree on how to deal with the signs. There are reasons for keeping them (one might want to draw a hyper-detailed map that shows the actual sign locations; one might want to count the number of signs in the city; redundancy is sometimes good because it helps find discrepancies), but your point that they might be obsolete now isn't wrong either. The worst thing that could happen is you deleting them while someone else thinks they are still relevant! |
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I would keep them. These are often landmarks of reference for casual directions, too. "Turn right into the first driveway after the speed limit sign." |
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You name it: "leave them alone since they represent valid physical objects - speed limit signs." I'd keep them. |
The trouble with speedlimit nodes is that they don't tell which direction the speed limit applies in. (That JOSM renders them all as "60" doesn't help either). I tend to treat speed limit nodes as temporary: when I've surveyed the area (in practice, this means determining the closure of roads where the <NSL applies), I delete them and apply the maxspeed= to the ways.
@mwbg you really shouldn't delete them, the positions of the signs are very helpful when mapping and verifying maxspeeds. There is a mappaint style you can add to your JOSM-configuration to display the actual numbers (you can find it in the prefs). It currently doesn't work for speed limits in mph but you can easily extend it to do this. The solution for the direction is to put the nodes besides the road (this is usually at their position) rather than on it. There is also documentation on the wiki: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:source:maxspeed