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There is a major arterial highway in Austin Texas that is not labeled on the OpenStreetMaps I see on Craigslist. I would like to suggest that state Highway 71, which spits off from US 290 on the southwest side of Austin Texas should have the highway number placed on it. It splits from 290 at the first major intersection west of W. William Cannon Drive and 290. This split is universally known as "the "Y" in Oak Hill" to everyone in the Austin area, and it is difficult to orient any location in that area without a label on Highway 71. It would also help if Highway 71 could be shown as an arterial instead of just slightly wider than an ordinary residential street.

I tried editing the map to add the label to Highway 71, but it is already clearly marked and labeled on the Bing satellite map that was displayed. I probably should not try to make changes until I have a better understanding of how editing works.

Thanks very much,

Lloyd

asked 17 Jun '16, 07:30

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LloydEwing
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edited 17 Jun '16, 07:32

3

Just for info - we're aware from previous discussion that Craigslist's maps are created by them and not updated very often, so even after any correction of the data in OSM (if that turns out to be necessary) it'll take a while to show up in Craigslist.

(17 Jun '16, 09:42) SomeoneElse ♦
3

Could you post a screenshot of the area as rendered on Craigslist, perhaps with an annotation of what you think should be improved?

(17 Jun '16, 12:06) Lightsider

This highway? Next time please try to provide a link to the area. It is tagged with ref=TX 71 and gets rendered with a highway shield on OSM. What is missing?

How things are rendered, where and how highway shields and names appear depends on the renderer and its stylesheet. So you should try to keep the data in OSM's database correct but never tag for the renderer.

permanent link

answered 17 Jun '16, 08:03

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scai ♦
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accept rate: 23%

scai, Yes, "This highway" is the one that is not identified on the maps on Craigslist: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=30.2478&mlon=-97.8899#map=15/30.2478/-97.8899&layers=N

Otherwise, none of your comments make any sense. Are you willing to fix the problem?

(17 Jun '16, 09:33) LloydEwing
1

In order to fix the problem first we have to know what is wrong exactly. Is the highway displayed on OSM correctly according to your needs? Is the problem just with the map displayed on Craigslist?

(17 Jun '16, 09:46) scai ♦

scai, All I know is that the maps displayed on Craigslist would be much more usable if this were fixed. If you aren't interested in the problem, I hope someone else will respond. If this is not the right place to make this request, could you suggest a better forum or forward it to the correct location? Of course there is no point in gong to Craigslist with this suggestion, since their management is completely uninterested and unresponsive to suggestions.

(17 Jun '16, 10:03) LloydEwing
2

Please read SomeoneElse's comment above. This might explain why the data is correct, displayed correctly on osm.org, but not Craigslist.

(17 Jun '16, 10:11) escada
1

Whether this is the right place for this request depends on whether there is a problem in the OSM data or just in the rendering style used by Craigslist. I tried to solve this miracle but unfortunately you didn't answer my questions. We can only make changes to the data but we can't change the map style used by Craigslist.

(17 Jun '16, 10:19) scai ♦
3

@LloydEwing: OpenStreetMap just provides the map data that says "there is a road from this point to that point, called Highway 71". It is up to Craigslist how they choose to draw that map, and not something we can change. If we've given them the correct data, and it looks like we have, the rest is up to them.

(17 Jun '16, 16:41) Richard ♦

Richard, It seems likely that Craigslist used a program to automatically generate their maps and that they would not make a special intervention to manually remove the label from Highway 71. Since this seems to be the only major road in the area without a label on the Craigslist maps, would it not be reasonable look at the OSM data to see if there is something unusual about this road in OSM? None of the comments above seem to indicate that this has been done. Is that too much to ask, or am I asking the wrong people? Since I do not know anything about OSM other than what I have seen on Craigslist, I obviously have no way to check your OSM data.

From some of the comments above it would seem to be that posting this question must be a great imposition, and that some people would never deign to give a substantive response to such a simple question. ;-)

Lightsider, I am not exactly sure how to do what you are asking. I fully described the location and what is missing in my initial question. If you want to see the location on the Craigslist maps, you can go to any ad page on Craigslist.com which has a map and move the location to the intersection I described.

I appreciate your help and patience.

(18 Jun '16, 12:32) LloydEwing
3

I agree with you though as Wm Cannon Dr and Southwest Pkwy look wider and rendered correctly. TX 71 should stand out like US 290 on maps even though Southwest Pkwy is a better road in real life. TX 29, TX 46, and other state highways are missing from Craigslist as well as FM and RM roads. Someone in California designed the renderer for Craigslist without understanding highways in Texas. Maybe originally TX 71 was tagged as SH 71 and confused things. Craigslist data is very old. There are several neighborhoods that don't even exist on Craigslist yet in the Austin area. I'm afraid you would have to contact Craigslist on that one as it appears to be a rendering issue on their side. Sorry to not be more helpful.

(18 Jun '16, 14:41) Longhorn256
5

@LloydEwing: I've just looked at the OSM data and it's absolutely as it should be - marked as a major road with the reference TX 71. (http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/150236863 is the raw data if you're interested!)

Looking at the Craigslist map, they appear to have made a decision to show this type of road as white with a grey border ("casing"). That seems a weird decision to me, but their choice I guess. I suspect the reason Southwest Parkway is looking wider is because it's a dual carriageway (divided highway), so Craigslist is drawing the two carriageways so close together that they merge and appear wider.

If I were Craigslist's cartographer I would give roads like TX 17 ('highway=primary' in the OSM data) a lightish yellow tinge so they stood out better. But sadly I'm not!

(18 Jun '16, 17:01) Richard ♦
2

Thanks very much to both @Richard and @Longhorn256. Although there is no an easy solution, your answers relieve my concern that there is anything we can do about the problem.

Many Thanks!

(19 Jun '16, 09:54) LloydEwing
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question asked: 17 Jun '16, 07:30

question was seen: 2,116 times

last updated: 19 Jun '16, 09:54

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