Hi @Fizzie41 Would you be able to link to the Talk-au thread(s) by any chance? I followed your above link & eventually found OpenStreetMap (OSM) notes of Australia which shows a summary, but super exciting to see the huge change in the graphs!

I think you’re right on the traffic lights, ages ago it was expected that navigation software (or at least the converter from OSM to the navigation format needed) would take care of that, but I see the traffic light tag page has been updated with recommendations of adding lights to where the cars stop. So I have fixed that at the intersection. I see what what you mean about the SE slip lane, I’ve added traffic lights because you can see in Bing that they have a seperate slip lane but it has lights. Also updated the other slip lanes to be giveways. AFAIK, it’s a core principle of OSM to map what’s on the ground, not for the renderer or navigation routing software. My take on this over the last 4-5 years is that means on-off ramps shouldn’t have names unless there’s a sign (like in the US, but also on the M1 in Melbourne). I think it’s expected the the OSM to Nav processor/converter will do something smart about on-off ramps so they don’t become unnamed road. Maybe file a bug on what ever is doing the conversion? It could automatically generate a message along the lines of eg. “take the exit to Nicholson Road”. Also, looking at the Bing sat images, it definitely looks like there are bike lanes along Nicholson Rd, so I added those tags. Feel free to have another look over the intersection to see if I stuffed up anything…

Hi Helifella, I’ve cleaned it up a bit more, just a few tweaks, nice job by the way (traffic lights make sense to me - matches the satellite view). Nicholson Rd northbound from the south was a motorway_link for some reason, fixed. There was one on/off ramp slip lane missing, I added & cleaned up the others. Also on/off ramps don’t have names or references unless that particular section of road is named (I think only the US names ramps).

Also looks like Nicholson Rd has bike lanes, is that correct? Let me know what you think.

It seems to look better, but it looks like you have veered the Nicholson Rd to join it to the on/off-ramp (was up to the bridge), then created a new section of road with same attributes to join to the bridge. I’d leave it as one continuous road until the bridge, then have a motorway_link section for the slip lane off/onto Nicholson Rd to the on/off-ramps. Mainly since Nicholson Rd doesn’t veer off to the left to the onramp, it goes straight, but a slip lane veers off (slip-lanes are *_link ways that are determined by the highest level of way it connects to, therefore motorway_link, just like the on/off-ramps).

Silly question, but it looks like the page you referenced is copyrighted, did you get permission from your work to use the data? I’d suggest adding source:name=The University of Adelaide or similar, or removing the data until someone can survey it.

You can't verify the names with other sources, unless they are public domain or license is suitable for OSM. I see it as the whole point of OSM, if people add or verify (& potentially change) data from copyrighted sources, it's tainted & not really free anymore. It also makes the efforts of all the OSM people "doing it the right way" seem cheated :P

In Melbourne we were using out-of-copyright maps from Melbourne Metro Board of Works (water utility). But visiting the streets and noting the name is the way to go (grabbing a photo of the street sign is ultimate - proof that you were there & got the name directly from the sign).

I too got the Dakota 20 a few months back, any tips on using it for OSM work? Haven't done much GPS trace work in OSM yet...

+1 for OSMtracker (on v0.10). Has a few issues on HTC Touch HD, but otherwise very good.
Waypoint addition & ability to view (& download) OSM tiles is fantastic...

Hi Louise, as Fairfield mentioned, it would be impossible to GPS map the boundries, there are plenty of parks without a designated fence the whole way round. If you wanted to walk it, you would have to refer to a copyrighted map :(
I remember some mention on the Australian OSM mailing list that the laws introducing a new national park has coordinates for the boundary in the legislation, but if that is true, I am unsure how comprehensive it is (marine parks are usually easy to define, the Alpine National Park - not so much :P ).

Ideally the government 2.0 initiative looking to make data more accessible will include data on park boundaries...

I'm personally in the "mark boundaries at actual locations" camp. I believe some routing programs allow for the non-joined nodes. I think of it as data accuracy, just because roads (areas) are modelled as ways, doesn't mean other features have to loose accuracy. Also, let's say someone comes along and asks "what is the total area of local parks & reserves in my local council?" -> it will be wrong if we share nodes.

Nice work eplatypus, I've been out that way recently, and it looks like you are doing a thorough job :-)
When you are comfortable with your mapping, it's a good idea to add the source annotation to roads, POI's etc. If using Yahoo imagery to trace (like me) in Potlatch, hit Shift+S to add source=yahoo. Also if you are going around and noting down the street names, use source:name=survey (or photograph, notepad, local knowledge, dictaphone etc.) See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:source

You can't use maps.live.com as a source or even just to look at while you're editing the map. See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copyright
I piece of tainted data puts OSM at risk...

We thought about using Wikipedia for place position information, but since the lat/lon might of been obtained from Google Maps, we couldn't because of copyright issues.

WFM!!
All layers, including maplint for Melbourne areas I haven't viewed recently (not in my cache) work fine

Is the license for the PDF map compatible with OSM? Obviously if not, it can't be used to add street names etc. See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copyright for more info. If there is any doubt, check with the Legal mailing list.

Hi awesm,
It's a tough call, but I would of thought the loc_name tag would be more appropriate...

Be careful about the street names, due to copyright from the municipal map. Hopefully it is public domain, or compatible with OSM, otherwise you will have to go out and note down all the street names from street signs like I have to!!
Usually it's best to ask on the Legal talk mailing list to see if it's ok to use.

Hate to mention it, but is the "official MROSD map" copyright compatible with OSM? Most official maps in my area are copyright, and can't be used in OSM :-(

Rhubarb,
Macleod / Yallambie?? That's a bit far from Essendon on bike!!! Though I do have some friends out that way, but usually drive A to B & back. I feel for you on those hilly sections, we don't have much to complain about out this way. I've ridden Templestowe Road to back home once from Croydon, I think I hit 80kmh down own of those hills!!

RRover,
I did some research, and I'm pretty certain it's tainted. GA maps are free as in beer but not free as in speech, they do have copyright restrictions. This has been discussed before:
Geoscience Australia Administrative Boundary data
Geoscience Australia 1:250K data
Geoscience Data
Deleting some GNB names..
and finally
[OSM-talk] OSDM data source
A few people respond "yeah, I think it's ok", but in that last listed thread, Andy Allan suggests the specific copyright license GA has for the data should be discussed on the legal-talk mailing list (it doesn't seem to have been brought up there). Then Ian Sergeant suggests the "requirement for tracking derivatives and changes to the terms and conditions of the agreement" is incompatible with OSM & it's CC-SA. Ironically, even other CC-SA data maybe incompatible with OSM (depends on what the attribution requirements are).

Shonky's copyright notice looks bad for OSM http://shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/copyright.txt
Remember, all data is copyrighted by default (and therefore unusable for OSM), unless it's "proven" to be ok.

Hopefully all data added to OSM has source/source:name=Geoscience Australia or GA or Shonky so people can fix.
I'd recommend deleting the added data, or bringing it up on the legal-talk mailing list, so people who deal with this stuff can provide an answer.