Hello community,
after playing (messing) around with streetnames, I have realized that we have several problems with them, that we should solve in the future.
I think those problems are fundamental and do make the job of mapping a street very complicated if you want to make it perfect.
We need to think of a solution for those problems, a way to identify those problems and display them or fix them automatically.
1. Street name translations not standardized
Currently there is the rule for Openstreetmap Israel, that we should write in OSM what is written on the street sign.
That creates very strange street names that are not compatible to other cities where the street names are translated in a different way.
I even expect that most people will translate the street names by them self. This could be also a problem.
A example of 3 x the same streetname with 3 different translation:
אסתר המלכה Ester Ha’Malca
אסתר המלכה Ester HaMalka
אסתר המלכה Ester Ha’Malka
Another example:
מנדלי מוכר ספרים Mendele Mocher Sfarim
מנדלי מוכר הספרים Mendele Mocher Sforim
מנדלי מוכר הספרים Mendele Moher Sefarim
מנדלי מוכר ספרים Mendele Moher Sefarim
מנדלי מוכר ספרים Mendelei Mocher Sfarim
מנדלי מוכר ספרים Mendeley Moher Sfarim
מנדלי מוכר ספרים Mendeli Mokher Sfarmin
**2. Ha (“ה”) or no Ha in front of the street name **
I realized that the Israeli street names are not very strict with the usage of (“ה”) in front of a street name, what is very hard to understand for tourists or not Hebrew talker.
Even the map provider seem to have a rule on this, so it doesn’t count what is written on the street sign. It counts the root of the word.
And if the Hebrew word is different, also the translation will have even more varieties of the word.
Example:
הכרמל Carmel
כרמל Carmel
הכרמל HaCarmel
הכרמל Ha’Carmel
**3. With a apostrophe after Ha (“ה”) or without in the English translation **
A lot of streets in Israel have a quote after the “Ha’” that makes it harder to find it in a search and it makes it unequal to other street names.
Example:
האצ"ל HaEtzel
האצ"ל Ha’Etzel
הכרמל HaCarmel
הכרמל Ha’Carmel
הגליל HaGalil
הגליל Ha’Galil
4. Derech in the street name
There is also the rule not to write “Derech” as part of the street name in Israel
(Over 600 streets do not follow this rule).
דרך אפק Derech Afek
דרך אהרון שולוב Derech Aharon Sholov
דרך אלוף עוזי נרקיס Derech Aluf Uzi Narkis
דרך איילות Derech Ayalot
דרך בר כוכבא Derech Bar Kochba
דרך בר-כוכבא Derech Bar Kochba
5. Missing translation of English or Hebrew street name
We still have a huge amount of streets not translated to Hebrew or English in Israel.
Over 1.000 streets have this problem.