[postgis-users] Interest in open-source road data

[Thomas, Cord]

I think this sort of thing would be very useful. 

A few questions and comments of usability, access, and implementation:

1 - Are there any open source community-based data gathering/improving
projects out there that this could be modelled from or folded into.

2 - Access - what kind of delivery mechanisms would there be - 
  a - could you select subsets of data
  b - what server(s) would be responsible for delivering this data
  c - what data formats would be available - postgresql dumps, shapefiles,
ascii, etc.

3 - Implementation
  a - you could use some sort of common open source model as in what has
been done with linux- someone maintains the metadata (aka kernel - a
linus-person), while individuals maintain the integrity of types of data
(one person maintains interstate highway data, etc.), individual geographic
regions (one person maintains each state)
  b - a need for an agreed upon data conflict resolution model (if an
interstate moves, what happens to the local roads, and the other features,
like water).
  c - what happens when TIGER data is updated - where do we maintain the
link between TIGER and TIGER-OS

4 - Quality Assurance / Control
Similar to the module compilation for linux, your data would be submitted
for change by the public, and reviewed by the responsible person. 
  - useful to have supporting documentation for each change - how did use
come about to change the data
  - useful to know if we are changing single sources more than once (are
different people visiting a particular shape more than once) and if so, are
subsequent visits using more accurate info
  - is it proposed that spatial information could also be modified.  while
TIGEr may have a scale-accuracy of 1:24,000 or whatever it is, would the
goal be to eventually improve TIGER data using local orthophoto-derived
landbase information, GPS surveys, etc.?


All these comments/questions aside, i think having a TIGER-derived database
available from which one could select data (all roads from state of X, or
all data from this town and all towns surrounding it) and have it made
available on an FTP server would be very very useful.  As it is, grabbing
data from TIGER and manipulating it everytime for small projects can eat up
considerable time.

Cord

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Ramsey [mailto:pramsey at refractions.net]
Sent: Monday, November 04, 2002 1:25 PM
To: postgis-users at postgis.refractions.net
Subject: Re: [postgis-users] Interest in open-source road data


Useful? Sure. Successful? I don't see how. Collecting and making those 
corrections will take alot of man hours. Unless you make it your 
personal mission to give away a new and improved Tiger, I do not see how 
you can either (a) get any reasonable quantity of it fixed or (b) be 
able to make any kind of quality control statements about the integrity 
of your enhanced data set.

Michael Graff wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> I've considered taking the TIGER 2000 data (or, more likely, the 2002
> data when it becomes available) and turning it into an open source
> road database, with additional characteristics such as one-way street
> data, traffic type data, speeds, etc.  The only source for that sort
> of data currently are commercial sources, who want a whole lot of
> money.  I understand why, of course -- they're highly accurate.
> 
> The plan is to begin to populate the line segments in TIGER with this
> additional information, keeping track of its source, and to change the
> naming method to include an "official" and/or "primary" name for road
> segments.  There are a lot of roads that are both I-80 and US Highway
> 6, for instance, but where they share a line I-80 is probably the more
> important.  TIGER often misses this.
> 
> I'd start with data for the US roads, but would like to spread it to a
> worldwide database, when there is interest for such.
> 
> The "funding" plan would be fully free for non-commercial use.
> Commercial use would involve some (fairly small) fee, used to maintain
> the database itself and to perhaps eventually turn this into a
> non-profit organization and hire some real people to maintain it.
> 
> The question is, do people here (and I'm starting small :) think this
> sort of thing would be useful and successful?
> 


-- 
       __
      /
      | Paul Ramsey
      | Refractions Research
      | Email: pramsey at refractions.net
      | Phone: (250) 885-0632
      \_


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