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I encountered a couple of "information" signs (rectangular, white text on blue background) when doing a first-level survey yesterday...

I'd initially taken these signs at face value when tagging up my survey, and put hgv=no and motor_vehicle=no respectively. It was only when going back to try and double-check where "the other end" of the prohibition was that I suddenly realised it was technically considered "information" rather than an actual access restriction... and I'd guess was added to try and avoid vehicles getting "stuck" after following an over-enthusiastic routing algorithm on a Sat Nav system, or otherwise seeing the "nice end" of the road and figuring it looked like a good short-cut.

Is there a better way to tag a signposted "Unsuitable for ..." restriction/information/advice? Other cases where similar signs have been encountered? Searching for "unsuitable" here didn't give any matches, but clearly something is required to avoid routing HGVs along the road (arguably, the motor vehicle unsuitability in the second instance could be implicit from the deteriorating "tracktype" which a previous mapper put on there).

In any case, it seems a bit odd to me that the local authority chose to use such signs rather than the normal signs prohibiting certain types of vehicles (with an "except for access" disclaimer if required). Tough luck for any foreign drivers of HGVs who don't understand the English text on the road sign......... (although moot for the moment as the road is closed except for access due to roadworks and a diversion in place)

asked 12 Jul '11, 12:19

banoffee's gravatar image

banoffee
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accept rate: 23%

edited 12 Jul '11, 12:21


To kind-of answer my own question (or at least to explain my reasoning if anyone wants to 'fix' it better later):

For the second case "unsuitable for motor vehicles", I'm going to assume that the tracktype at the bottom of the way is more than adequate to indicate unsuitability for normal motor vehicles, so intend to remove the motor_vehicle=no tag and replace with a note indicating this "unsuitable for motor vehicles" sign at the end.

For the first case "unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles", I'd think this would eventually be dealt with by details captured by second and third-level surveys, such as width of road surface, maximum clearance in height/width, steepness, etc. - the kind of thing that is immediately apparent from looking down the road from the end where there is no sign, but less so from the junction where the sign is posted... but I'm not planning on surveying in that level of detail any time soon. As such, I'll leave the hgv=no in place, but add a fixme tag indicating that the characteristics of the road that make it unsuitable for HGVs need to be surveyed.

Of course, if the local authority later decides to replace the information sign with an actual height/weight/width restriction, the tagging can be changed to reflect this.

Edit: done. See http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/8711649

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answered 13 Jul '11, 12:21

banoffee's gravatar image

banoffee
88441421
accept rate: 23%

edited 13 Jul '11, 12:30

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question asked: 12 Jul '11, 12:19

question was seen: 14,062 times

last updated: 13 Jul '11, 12:30

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