Hi all, I’ve written a new post based on OpenStreetMap data on roads, landuse and other features in Australia, to answer the question: is the total length of roads within towns and cities less or more than the total length of roads between towns and cities. Town boundaries were generated from OSM’s landuse, leisure and other tags. Hope you find something of interest. Cheers.

https://little-maps.com/2023/01/09/city-or-the-bush-where-are-the-most-roads/

I’ve written a long blog post on sealed and unsealed roads in NSW. OpenStreetMap now has comprehensive coverage of road surface tags in NSW and the post provides lots of maps and tables to illustrate the patterns. Hope you enjoy it.

https://little-maps.com/2022/12/16/openstreetmap-now-has-comprehensive-data-on-sealed-and-unsealed-roads-across-new-south-wales-australia/

Hi folks, for everyone interested in OpenStreetMap’s fantastic road data… I’ve just posted a series of blogs about unsealed roads in Victoria. I’ve pitched it at cyclists rather than mappers to widen the audience, but you should still find lots of interest I hope.

https://little-maps.com/2022/01/12/the-great-vic-gravel-route-exploring-victoria-on-unsealed-roads/

It starts with the question, how far can you ride across Victoria without hitting a paved road? Then displays Victoria’s major ‘gravel zones’, and plots the route that crosses Victoria from west to east which contains the shortest possible distance of paved roads. It’s very circuitous.

A series of supplementary posts expand on the main theme and describe how the maps and routes were made. I hope you find it interesting. Best wishes Ian

If you’ve ever wondered how accurate road surface tags are in OpenStreetMap, I’ve compiled a review of the accuracy of surface tags (sealed vs unsealed) in Victoria, Australia.

https://littlemaps692810600.wordpress.com/2021/12/03/openstreetmap-on-australian-roads-how-accurate-are-road-surface-tags-in-victoria/

There’s lots of colorful maps and tables. Spoiler alert – Thanks to amazing work by hundreds of enthusiastic mappers, OpenStreetMap’s road surface tags in Victoria are extremely accurate, and provide an invaluable resource for users who want to select routes that stick to sealed or unsealed roads and tracks.

I’ve written an overview of the patterns of major roads across Australia, based on OpenStreetMap data.

https://littlemaps692810600.wordpress.com/2021/06/21/australian-roads-in-openstreetmap/

There’s lots of colorful maps, charts and tables. It’s a deep dive that breaks down the total length of motorways, trunk, primary, secondary and tertiary roads in all Australian states, and the proportion of each that is paved and unpaved. (With a couple of local exceptions, virtually all of these roads now have surface tags.) It focuses on the patterns of the roads themselves, not tagging patterns.

So, if you’ve ever wondered: (1) what proportion of all major roads is unsealed and unsealed; (2) how the Tasmanian road network varies from that in other states; (3) where to find the longest, unpaved, trunk road in Australia; and (4) many other nerdy road facts, please take a read.

UPDATE: Version 2 of the following draft was added to the Australian Tagging Guidelines on 30 Jan 2021. A short note and link to the Australian page was also added to the the international wiki highway=rest area.

The following notes provide a summary of comments on tagging roadside rest areas in Australia, based on a discussion on the OSM Australian mailing list in January 2021. Pending feedback on this draft, these notes will be incorporated into the Australian Tagging Guidelines and/or the international wiki highway=rest area.

Suggest adding a new section in the Australian Tagging Guidelines after the current section: ‘‘3.1.7 Tunnels and bridges and layers”, as follows.

Version 2: after comments received before 26 January

3.1.8 Roadside rest areas

A wide variety of rest areas are common on regional roads. Some parks on major roads in regional towns are signposted as rest areas. These parks are often managed by local councils rather than road boards and may be well used by local residents. These are best tagged using leisure=park (not highway=rest_area), name = “XXX Rest Area”. Features such as toilets and playgrounds can be added as separate features.

Roadside rest areas may be mapped using either a single node or a closed way (or area). Some small roadside stops directly adjacent to the roadway have been mapped using amenity=parking (with additional tags) rather than highway=rest_area. However, most roadside rest areas have been mapped using highway=rest_area, as described in the international wiki highway=rest area.

In larger rest areas, parking bays may be mapped separately to the broader boundaries of the rest area by mapping and tagging parking bays with amenity=parking. Alternatively, in small rest areas or where rest areas are mapped as a single node, both tags (highway=rest_area and amenity=parking) may be used on the same node.

Camping and overnight stays are not allowed in many rest areas. Where camping is permitted officially, and signposted as such, this can be shown by adding an additional node (or area) using tourism=camp_site. Again, toilets and other features can be added separately. There is no explicit way to tag rest areas where camping is not allowed. However other mappers could be advised of this condition by adding a note.

Many rest areas, or parking bays within rest areas, are dedicated for truck drivers who are legally obliged to take rests at specified intervals. Areas signposted for use by trucks only and not by other users may be tagged in one of two ways:

(1) highway=rest_area (and/or amenity=parking), access=no, hgv=designated (‘‘hgv’’ stands for heavy goods vehicle). This indicates that access is only permitted for heavy vehicles.

(2) highway=rest_area (and/or amenity=parking), capacity:car=no, capacity:hgv=32 (if the number of truck parking spots is known) or capacity:hgv=yes (if the number of track parking spots is not known).

Version 1: prior to comments

3.1.8 Roadside rest areas

A wide variety of rest areas are common on regional roads. Some parks on major roads in regional towns are signposted as rest areas. These parks are often managed by local councils rather than road boards and may be well used by local residents. These are best tagged using leisure=park (not highway=rest_area), name = “XXX Rest Area”. Features such as toilets and playgrounds can be added as separate features.

Some small roadside stops directly adjacent to the roadway have been mapped using amenity=parking (with additional tags) rather than highway=rest_area. However, most roadside rest areas are tagged as highway=rest_area, as described in the international wiki highway=rest area.

Camping and overnight stays are not allowed in many rest areas. Where camping is permitted officially, and signposted as such, this can be shown by adding an additional node (or area) using tourism=camp_site. Again, toilets and other features can be added separately.

Many rest areas, or parking bays within rest areas, are dedicated for truck drivers who are legally obliged to take rests at specified intervals. Areas signposted for use by trucks only and not by other users may be tagged in one of two ways:

(1) highway=rest_area, access=no, hgv=designated (‘‘hgv’’ stands for heavy goods vehicle). This indicates that access is only permitted for heavy vehicles.

(2) highway=rest_area, amenity=parking, capacity:car=no, capacity:hgv=32 (if the number of truck parking spots is known) or capacity:hgv=yes (if the number of track parking spots is not known).