What to map in Ukraine?

Hi,
I’ll be in Ukraine next week (mainly Transcarpathia and Lviv area). As a regular OSM contributor, I will obviously map whatever’s worth mapping but I’d like to ask if there’s anything I should specifically look out for. Any coordinated mapping effort currently underway? Hiking trail signposts, railway crossing reference numbers, speed limits, street post boxes, power line towers … ?
Also, are there any non-standard local mapping practices I should be aware of?

Cheers.

(Sorry for the English post, I do understand written Ukrainian and Russian but I’d rather not butcher it by trying to actually write in it.)

No need to worry, we mostly speak English freely here. At least, in OSM :smiley:

Currently there is a “Weekly Task” for mapping areas near the sea of Azov, but it’s rather far from where you will be. I guess it’s more useful to map where you physically are. There’s no replacement for on-ground surveyors.

Note that the population in the regions you’ve listed is of mixed background, so aside from Ukrainian and Russian, Polish (in Lviv), Hungarian and Romanian (in Transcarpathia) are rather commonplace, including street names, monuments and organizations. Don’t be puzzled, it’s all in use (well, mostly). The rule of thumb is to put Ukrainian in “name” while placing everything else under appropriate language tags (also duplicating Ukrainian under name:uk if you’re feeling especially zealous :).
If, by chance, you will be in Solotvino (Transcarpathian border with Romania), there was a HOT OSM task a while ago - it’s an area with difficult humanitarian state, old salt mines caving in. We mapped what we could from satellite imagery, but street names are still lacking here and there.

Speed limits are mostly mapped where there are explicit road signs, but some try to map service roads near buildings in high-density residential areas (внутриквартальные проезды, дворовые территории) as

highway=service
living_street=yes

It differs from highway=living_street in that there is no requirement for a “Pedestrian zone” road sign to be present. Local traffic rules dictate a specific low speed limit for all such roads and improved priority for pedestrians, so this data may be used by navigators in the future.

Other than that, nothing comes to mind as of this moment. Don’t forget to enjoy your journey :wink: