The american way of mapping :(

Hi,

some weeks ago i asked you about your “strange” city boundaries (“strange” from the european view) and got an answer, which was ok to me.

But now? The boundaries west of jackson/missisippi:

State boundaries (AL4), County boundaries (al6) and city boundaries (al8) one over the other. Making a mesh of nonsense.
Ok, it’s your country and not my problem - but from osm view it’s atrocious :frowning:

Regard
walter/germany

I agree - this is just in the “bad import needs fixing” category. The problem is that unless there is a usable source of information about where the boundary is actually located, the real boundary could be anywhere.

Despite the problems, the latest TIGER state and county boundaries are actually a better source of boundary information than the original USGS boundary sources. In many locations, people have corrected boundaries to that standard - merging geometry where possible.

I had already done that for the northern border of South Carolina, and we expect a revised accurate survey to be available for OSM use from the government, once it has been approved by law - http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/a-278-year-old-error-over-the-nc-sc-border-is-riling-residents/Content?oid=3633891 .

But just merging geometry is a big step in the right direction, even if the correct location is not yet known.

I know this is an old comment but I noticed the problem was still there.
There should NOT be a state boundary since Jackson is in the middle of Mississippi. The county boundary follows the Pearl river mostly. Of course the river has changed over time. While the counties are somewhat well-defined, the city boundaries are a mess. Almost all of the city is in Hinds county but there are small pieces in both Rankin and Madison counties.
If I were mapping it I would map only the county boundaries and not mess with the city limits.