street names in Israel have several fundamental problems

Ok.

After 2 - 3 hours of work, I have a table with a lot of fixes ready.
There is still a lot left to do in the table, but its very interesting if the upload will be possible that easy or not.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjoRSMeOZcXDdGFaYjFZcXB6eS1RTVR1RGhmWjI3M2c

Following things have been changed so far:

1. tried removed all “derech” / “roads” / “streets”
2. copied from existing translations to missing translations.
3. If there are several translation types of the same Hebrew spelling I used name:en1, name:en2 etc. and updated this way all roads.
4. If there where several of a kind of road and there was a existing arabic or russian translation I copied those into other fields.

To Mr_Israel’s questions:

1. Hebrew - as written on sign. English - For names (of people, places, etc.) - standard spelling according to Wikipedia or other resources, unless there is a note saying “I saw the road sign and the English spelling is ___” or similar.
2. Same as Mr_Israel above
3. I change my mind - I prefer without apostrophe, unless there is a note saying “I saw the road sign and there is an apostrophe” or similar.

(I assume that almost all English translations are based on assumptions or general knowledge, not having actually looked carefully at the spelling on the sign.)

Agreed

Not sure about this one. On Tel Aviv street signs there is no ד"ר and I don’t think the average person would think to look for this. And when I search for the address on the Israel post office website (that’s pretty official, no?) it just uses ארלוזורוב in Tel Aviv and Haifa (the only two I checked)! So I think maybe we shouldn’t add first names and titles when they aren’t already there.

If you pronounce “Yerushalayim” you’re probably already using Hebrew letters, and “Jerusalem” is universally known, and it avoids issues with all the Arabs and international people who also consider the city to be “theirs”, so I prefer “Jerusalem”. “Yerushalayim” should be a secondary name.

About name:en
this tag is for rendering map for english speaking people, so if some name have well known english translation - it must be used. And if we have such well known name - all transliterations like “Yerushalaim” unneeded.

If somebody want to review (and update) all city and towns he/en/ar/ru names:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AolLjmdDjvyydFUySlBiY1NwWUV1dm9wQVBrOVBCTEE

We can use Wikipedia as a resource for this, right?

For checking names and adding wiki links - I think yes.

If for some city we have both node and way with almost same tags:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/node/27132996
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/27244120

What would you do?

It’s an area. I suppose an area is preffered to a node, right?

Guys, I need help with http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/node/278470160

Once it was “Bet Ma`on”, but after some update became partly “טבריה עילית”
is this different names for the same place? or a completely different places?

From what I understand (based mostly on Wikipedia): Beit Maon is a name used for the neighborhood immediately surrounding this point. Teveriah Ilit refers to a larger area (basically everything west of Sderot Sapir) with the same center point.

I’m not sure what that means for us, but I think the name Teveriah Ilit is much better known.

but can we call “טבריה עילית” town? or it’s only suburb?

I have created a new table for the first 6000 Israeli roads in two chunks.
This time including the new *.POLY file that yrtimiD posted before (now incl. the settlements).
THANKS FOR THAT ONE!!!

1-3000 => https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjoRSMeOZcXDdDVuOXhKMV8waGpUYlNmMGIxMDNXdHc
3000- 6000 => https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjoRSMeOZcXDdFhVNGctY0xfME1OM3JESkYtZlVuc2c

There is not that much to do, but still every help is appreciated.

טבריה עילית is only a suburb, I don’t think anyone regards it as a separate city.

I have gone through the first chunk of 1-3000 streets and there are around 45 non translated streets left.
Would be great if somebody could help here.

yrtimiD: I added Russian names for every place in Israel (not counting Arab villages in West Bank), and Arabic names wherever I could.

Nice, I’ll upload it today!
Thank you!

Update: uploaded.

The first chunk (1-3000) is finished and ready for upload. (All streets are translated)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjoRSMeOZcXDdDVuOXhKMV8waGpUYlNmMGIxMDNXdHc

The second chunk (3000- 6000) is having around 50 non translated street names.

Do you want to update all rows or only with “x” in “Updated”?

Upd: Successfully uploaded http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/14404762
and http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/14405148

I have definded all updqted information with a x
But you are also welcome to update everything.

Update:
The second chunk 3000 - 6000 is also finished.

Uploaded both marked with “X” and not marked.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/14405624
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/14405956