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Surely I'll earn 10 demerits with this question but how do I see on a bidirectional road what is forward, what is backward? Example: A road drawn in 2 pieces. When I put a stop sign on one part, the 'beam' points to the left, when putting a stop sign on the second part, the 'beam' points right. Practically each time I have to test a road section what is forward and what's backward, in the silliest example the road goes to Elice, destination:forward=Elice. On the next crossing the destination, following the beam lead, it becomes destination:backward=Elice although we're still travelling west. The wiki says something inconclusive to me literally 'how it was drawn'. What's the visual cue I'm missing?

asked 16 Jan '21, 12:53

SekeRob's gravatar image

SekeRob
211192027
accept rate: 0%

edited 16 Jan '21, 13:35


Every way in the OSM database ha a direction. This direction is marked in the editors with a little arrow

exapmle

so if I put a stop sign at the end of this way, the "direction:forward" follows the direction of the way (in this case, from right to left), while the "direction:backward" goes against the way's direction (in this case, from right to left)

direction=forward
direction=forward

direction=backward
direction=backward

permanent link

answered 16 Jan '21, 13:00

Mannivu's gravatar image

Mannivu
1.1k31027
accept rate: 6%

4

Bwilliantly simple, never looked for them to be pointing anywhere, only used them as a point to grab to add a node by wiggle or add a curve.

thumbs up.

(16 Jan '21, 13:23) SekeRob
1

@Mannivu. It looks to me that the captions on the last two images are switched. I expect that in the last one, where the viewing angle points in the same direction as the arrow on the way is direction=forward

(19 Jan '21, 07:28) escada
2

@escada: iD is a bit peculiar. It depicts the direction the sign is facing, not the direction it needs to be followed in. So the captions above are correct.

(19 Jan '21, 09:15) TZorn
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question asked: 16 Jan '21, 12:53

question was seen: 1,056 times

last updated: 19 Jan '21, 09:15

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