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As I guide my car down what was left of a two lane road that is now under major reconstruction and reduced to one lane, a question came to mind. Since the road is now one way and will most likely be for a couple of months, should I revise the OSM map to reflect it?

The road has been reduced to from a two lane, two way street to one lane. The work has been going on since March (3+ months), and involves relocating all major utilities. It looks like the work is scheduled to go through the end of the year. I am not sure how long they expect to keep it one way.

asked 01 Aug '11, 03:00

jwernerny's gravatar image

jwernerny
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accept rate: 0%

retagged 01 Aug '11, 16:44

banoffee's gravatar image

banoffee
88441421

I was able to find a published expected end date of "9/15/2011". So for now, I will not make it a oneway road, but instead add "temporary:oneway=yes" and "temporary:oneway=2011-09-15". Too bad I can only accept one answer.

(02 Aug '11, 19:49) jwernerny

See this previous question, and in particular the answer from Jochen Topf: Temporary road works and traffic situations.

Note that people are using OSM data for a variety of things, eg downloading to their GPS device, and they might only update their map every few months. So your temporary change might be around for a lot longer than you expect.

In general, if the road works etc is very short-term (eg a few days), then its best not to change it. If its more than a few months, then it probably is worth changing. Though it would be a good idea to add a note to remember to resurvey it and change it back, possibly with a fixme tag with the estimated date.

permanent link

answered 01 Aug '11, 14:05

Vclaw's gravatar image

Vclaw
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accept rate: 22%

Lots of good answers, but I think this is best for now; or at least until there is widespread use of the temporary tags (which I may also add).

(02 Aug '11, 19:46) jwernerny

One of the biggest advantages OSM has over other maps is the ability to reflect short-term changes like this one. As long as you drive the route frequently enough to note when it's repaired--and are willing to retag the way back to two-way--I think you should go ahead. You could also add a note= tag explaining what you've done.

permanent link

answered 01 Aug '11, 05:41

barte's gravatar image

barte
45951017
accept rate: 16%

Making a "permanent" change to the map, even only temporarily, could affect people who may be using a download including this temporary change for some time to come. Even some of the frequently-used tools are only updating their database every few weeks or so.

You might want to look at the proposed tagging scheme for such temporary changes... http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/temporary

Using that proposed scheme, you would add (replacing xx-xx as appropriate)

  • temporary:oneway=yes
  • temporary:date_on=2011-xx-xx
  • temporary:date_off=2011-xx-xx

This also has the advantage that it's not relying on anybody to explicitly remember to "put it back later".

I don't think renderers or routers are currently using these though, so perhaps for now the tagging for temporary features is useless in practice?

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answered 01 Aug '11, 11:20

banoffee's gravatar image

banoffee
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accept rate: 23%

edited 01 Aug '11, 11:23

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question asked: 01 Aug '11, 03:00

question was seen: 5,570 times

last updated: 02 Aug '11, 19:49

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