OpenStreetMap
Any suggestions by anyone how different categories of fords should be recorded?
For example how would you distinguish the following:
Surfaced fords at a point such as Barwick (TL386189)
Irish Bridges at a point, such as Buntingford (TL363299)
Unsurfaced fords at a point with surfaced approaches, such as Standon (TL393221)
Unsurfaced fords at a point with unsurfaced approaches, such as Latchford (TL394205 and TL388201)
Unsurfaced fords running along river beds for a distance, such as Furneaux Pelham (TL437294 running in a southwardly direction to TL438283)
Surfaced tidal roads running in or across the sea (e.g. to Holy Island at NU089429)
Unsurfaced tidal roads running in or across the sea (e.g. Maplin Sands TQ999889)
Regards
Chris
Discussion
Comment from SK53 on 15 May 2009 at 10:25
My initial impression is that the surface tag would cover many of these if attached to the ford node. I don't know if ford applies to ways: I certainly would not use it for Holy Island, this is a road with unusual access conditions.
Locations are better given in lat/long rather than some (apparently) proprietary format (and I say this despite my user name :-)): (Barwick 51.852 0.0109 etc.
SK53
Comment from c2r on 15 May 2009 at 10:37
Thanks, yeah, I've been using surface=paved or unpaved on those nodes, although the tagging guide appears to indicate that these are only applicable to ways.
Ford itself doesn't seem to apply to ways, which it probably should do, as some can be fairly long (Standon is is about 50 meters, but Furneaux Pelham is over a km long).
Irish Bridges are even more complicated, as they are sort of a roadway with culverts underneath to allow water to pass under, but in winter conditions the bridge becomes a ford....
How should questions like this be raised (I've never needed to raise anything in the couple of years up to now as everything else has just worked for me based on the available documentation!)
Regards
Chris
Comment from SK53 on 15 May 2009 at 14:24
I'd add something to the talk page for ford on the wiki, for now (a cut and paste of the OP (w/o OSGB refs) would be good. There's very little on ford, and AFAIK they are not rendered so how they get tagged is likely to be pretty free format. Pictures would be helpful. One thing I've noticed at the only ford which I've mapped is a height gauge showing how deep the water is. Probably a nice to have: perhaps height_gauge=yes, or similar. Mapping fords in the UK is probably pretty abstruse, but there must be many other places in the world where most crossings of waterways are fords and will require a range of other tags, such as crocodiles=salties;freshies or crocodiles=no: important info if its a bit deep and you've stalled!
Comment from c2r on 16 May 2009 at 22:58
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Tag:highway%3Dford