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[closed] “Ghost” arrows in Potlatch2 and iD; can someone please explain them to me?

0

Hi,

when I just added a "highway=path" at 6.38817 East and 53.99132 North (Tom Bellew Avenue in Dundalk, Ireland) in Potlatch 2, I noticed that, as soon as I tapped on T.B.A. [described only as "highway=tertiary" and its name], it showed arrows pointing to the right, which at first I thought were one way arrows. I switched to iD - same thing, though here instead of arrows there were just triangles, obviously different from the one way arrows.

Yet, if I add "one_way=no" to T.B.A.,the arrows/triangles dispappear.

Do they have any meaning? Or are they just a minor bug? Or...?

asked 11 Aug '17, 09:22

Marabu_Too's gravatar image

Marabu_Too
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accept rate: 0%

closed 12 Aug '17, 23:29

The question has been closed for the following reason “The question is answered, right answer was accepted” by Marabu_Too 12 Aug ‘17, 23:29


3 Answers:

1

alt text The "way" direction indicator arrow in the potlatch2 toolbox. Note: clicking on the arrow will reverse the way direction.

answered 12 Aug '17, 21:45

andy%20mackey's gravatar image

andy mackey
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accept rate: 4%

edited 23 Aug '17, 12:09

0

Sorry - either I have been completely blind until now, or this is a new feature; in the past few minutes I found it whenever I clicked on an existing road - apparently it shows the direction in which a road has been drawn.

answered 11 Aug '17, 10:12

Marabu_Too's gravatar image

Marabu_Too
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accept rate: 0%

1

Every way in OSM has a direction. The direction is only relevant if certain tags are present. For example tags such as oneway, maxspeed:forward, maxspeed:backward, cycleway:left, cycleway:right and so on.

(11 Aug '17, 11:43) scai ♦

I'm aware of THAT; however, these arrows appear without any relevant tags.

I just drew a line with two nodes from left to right, tagged it "highway=residential", and when I then clicked on that line, there were the little arrows pointing towards the right.

Have I simply never noticed them, or are they a helpful new feature of OSM?

(11 Aug '17, 16:34) Marabu_Too
2

There has been a direction arrow in the Potlatch2 tool box for quite a while. In addition to scai's advice it is also useful to know and important when drawing multi polygons such when mapping for water and islands, that the water is on the the left of the way, so you should contain the water in an anti-clockwise polygon, and the island should been drawn clockwise. I have not used iD much so i can't comment on it.

(11 Aug '17, 20:15) andy mackey
2

They probably have been there since day 1 in all editors. Because when you want to had the tags that scai mentions, you need to know the direction before the tag is actually set. After all, you have to choose between :forward or :backward based on those arrows.

(12 Aug '17, 07:08) escada

Strange; I just remembered that some time ago different speed limits for each direction were introduced for a two lane street near my home.

I checked and found the "lanes:..." tags, and, because I saw no obvious way to tell what was "forward" on that street, I temporarily added "oneway=1".

Apparently on my device the arrows were not visible at that time.

However, as they now are, everything is good.

Thanks, guys!

(12 Aug '17, 12:36) Marabu_Too

Returned from today's "OSM walk" a little while ago, just accessed the web site - no arrows anywhere in Potlatch 2, and I haven't changed anything that I know of (just checked: in iD they are there; so the next time I need "forward" or "backward", I'll just switch briefly to iD).

(12 Aug '17, 21:07) Marabu_Too

When using Potlatch2, the direction of the selected way is shown by the arrow in the toolbox.

(12 Aug '17, 21:37) andy mackey
showing 5 of 7 show 2 more comments

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to andy mackey (only just scrolled up and saw your answer):

THANK YOU! I always ignored that arrow, but may occasionally have touched it without noticing.

answered 12 Aug '17, 23:26

Marabu_Too's gravatar image

Marabu_Too
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accept rate: 0%

edited 12 Aug '17, 23:29

Source code available on GitHub .