Does anyone have a clue where can I find Open Data relating to Israel Post offices and postboxes?
The Israel Post website has a table that is supposed to contain all post offices, but obviously doesn’t because it doesn’t even contain Tel Aviv. Also, the “address” filed in this table is sometimes not machine-readable or useful to locate the exact position of the post office (in case of small towns/villages who don’t have street addresses)
The data is also available on govmap, but that’s not Open Data because scraping from govmap is against the terms&conditions of the website.
I wanted to use this data to make sure we have all post offices and post boxes mapped in OSM, but I can’t seem to find an open source for this kind of data.
I’m considering using a freedom-of-information request to get the full list, but before I do - does anyone know if this kind of data is publicly available somewhere in a useful format?
It’s worth noting there’s a tagging issue; There isn’t a widely accepted way to mark “incoming-only” postboxes, the kind you often see in Israel. We need to establish a convention and document it in the Wiki. See: Talk:Tag:amenity%3Dpost_box#.5BDK.5D_pickup-only_postboxes
You mean, postboxes that can’t be used by the public for posting? That wiki link suggests access=private, but in fact, I am not sure whether they should use an amenity=* tag at all. amenity=* is for facilities the public can use; those boxes can’t be used by the public. Compare power lines and manholes (tagged as power=* and manhole=* respectively - not as amenity=*).
I think they meant boxes that you use to send post (the red thing with the slot for the letter) as opposed for receiving boxes, which are those tiny lockers you open with a key to get your incoming letters.
Those usually exist in the post offices themselves, or in small dedicated buildings. It’s usually done in areas where there are no delivery directly to your own box in your own building, such as villages/Moshavs, or certain low-density neighborhoods. Here’s an example from Yahud: https://goo.gl/maps/5U2EMoCQSo42
Since these are also used by the public, I think it makes sense to map them - if you move somewhere new and don’t know exactly where these boxes are located, the map could help you find it.
Some of these don’t have outgoing. I meant to say there’s no Current convention for tagging those. They’re public, receive-only, unstaffed mini-buildings.
I don’t think they’re similar to Packstation, because Packstation is tagged as a vending machine, and those receive-only places are not really a machine at all, they don’t require electricity to operate. also, they’re only for letters, not packages.
I think both of these differences can be reflected in tagging. E.g., amenity=vending_machine, vending=letters_pickup, requires_electricity=no, operator=“Israel Post”. (I.e., letters_pickup instead of parcel_pickup)
requires_electricity would also make sense for payphones, I suppose? (A payphone is just a special type of vending machine)